In a major breakthrough against corruption, Assam police have arrested 14 officers of the State civil services for their involvement in a multi-crore cash-for-job scam even as search is on for 11 others who had also sdopted unfair means to make it to the list of successful candidates selected by the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal appreciated police action of arresting the 14 ACS, APS and allied service officers from different parts of the state in APSC’s cash for job scam.
Sonowal reiterated state government’s commitment of zero tolerance against corruption and asserted that the fight against this social evil will continue unabated.
“The 14 officers serving in different capacities in different locations were picked up by the police on the wee hours today and were arrested later. We have evidences against their involvement in the cash for jobs scam,” said Assam Director General of Police, Mukesh Sahay while talking to The Pioneer today.
He said that search is on regarding other 11 officers who are also working in different capacities.
The Assam police had in June this year summoned 25 officers selected by the APSC to collect their handwriting sample and sent those to forensic laboratory. “Their handwriting matched with some fake answer scripts we recovered from the APSC office,” said the DGP.
It may be mentioned here that the police had earlier last year arrested APSC chairman Rakesh Paul, APSC members Samedur Rahman and Basanta Doley and three officials of the Commission for their involvement in the multi crore scam which had been on for several years.
The BJP led government in Assam had assured that they would free Assam of corrupt practices if they come to power. After assuming power last year, the BJP led alliance government adopted a zero tolerance policy against corruption.
The cash for jobs scam of the APSC came to the fore only last year when the Dibrugarh police while investigating a bribery case arrested an engineer of the Town and Country Planning department and caught him red handed accepting bribes of Rs. 10 lakh. Further grilling of the engineer, Dibrugarh police arrested APSC chairman, two of the members and three officials for their involvement in the scam.