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Assam government suspends 10 of 23 officers arrested in cash-for-jobs scam
Investigations have revealed that the accused officers had bribed senior APSC officials to get the much sought after posts by doctoring their answer sheets.
The Assam government has suspended 10 of the 23 officers arrested after they were accused of paying large sums of money to secure jobs through the examinations conducted by Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), officials said on Tuesday.
The personnel department suspended the 10 officers belonging to Assam Civil Service (ACS) and other allied services in an order issued on Monday evening.
The other accused, including those from Assam Police Service (APS), are likely to be suspended soon. Of the officers, all from the 2015 batch, 13 are from ACS, seven from APS and the rest belong to allied services.
While the 23 were arrested or surrendered themselves in court in the past few days, two others are still absconding. There is still no trace of ACS officer Nishamoni Deka and APS officer Rakesh Gupta.
Investigations have revealed that the accused officers had bribed senior APSC officials to get the much sought after posts by doctoring their answer sheets. An investigation of the answer sheets of these officers revealed a mismatch in their handwriting.
Fourteen of the accused officers were arrested on November 8 after forensic tests to match their handwritings with fake answer sheets recovered by the police confirmed discrepancies. They will be produced in a court on Tuesday on expiry of their two-week police remand.
Nine others were arrested or surrendered in a court in the following days.
Last year, the police arrested APSC chairperson Rakesh Paul and two other members of the commission - Samedur Rahman and Basanta Kumar Doley - for their role in the scam.
The scam surfaced after a dentist, who had applied for a job through an examination conducted by APSC, was approached by a state government employee promising her the post if she paid Rs 10 lakh. A trap was laid and the employee, who used to act as an agent for senior APSC officials, was arrested while taking the bribe money.
