Vigilance personnel on Monday arrested Niranjan Tripathy, a co-accused in the Amin-Revenue Inspector (RI) recruitment scam in Balangir district. Tripathy was a senior clerk in the Balangir Collector’s office. Earlier, the then district Collector Debraj Mishra had been arrested in this case of gross irregularities in the appointment of 120 RIs and Amins during his tenure in 2012-13. later, he obtained bail from the High Court in December last year.
It was an RTI query that nailed the officials. The startling revelations about the irregularities first led to a Vigilance inquiry and then a Crime Branch probe, culminating in the arrest of Mishra. The Vigilance had said in its report that Niranjan Tripathy had intervened in the matter and told the evaluators that there were no specific guidelines regarding computer practical test, which was later conducted as per his suggestion.
The Vigilance report had also stated that the candidates were awarded marks as per the order of the Collector. The report had revealed that the candidates, who had secured two marks in computer practical test, were given 93 marks while the candidates who had secured 98 marks were awarded zero marks as per the advice of Mishra during the revision of answer sheets, which was conducted by the employees not engaged in the examination earlier.
Besides, the Vigilance officials had also found that the candidates securing zero marks and others, who had not attended the physical test, had been given appointment. later, the case was handed over to the Crime Branch, which during its investigation found the involvement of the Collector and four other employees, including Tripathy, and registered cases against all the five.