APSC Cash-For-Job Scam: 57 civil servants arrested, dismissed; Assam CM informs Assembly

The APSC was embroiled in a cash-for-job scam being investigated by Assam Police, which arrested nearly 70 people, including its former Chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul and 57 civil services officials since 2016.

Time8 Webdesk
March 24, 2023
2:33 pm

Guwahati: At least 57 state civil servants of 2013, 2015, and 2016 batches have been arrested and dismissed from service for “cash for job scam”, while three others have become approvers, officials said.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while replying to a query by Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah, said that 60 people, who passed the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) examinations in those three years, have been brought under investigation.

Meanwhile, 57 were arrested and discharged from services in the APSC cash for job scam, while three other officials agreed to become the approvers, Sarma stated. Currently, the three are under suspension, he added.

Sarma further said that the government has not yet approved the report of the Justice B K Sharma Commission on the scandal and it was forwarded to a committee for review.

Rakesh Kumar Paul, the then Chairman, of APSC, one of the main accused in the case, in connivance with other accused persons including Samedur Rahman, had manipulated and engineered the answer booklets of the Combined Competitive Examination of 2013, by way of enhancing marks, replacing original answer booklets with manufactured/forged booklets in respect of some candidates, facilitating them by securing a job through APSC in lieu of cash.

On May 3 2017, the Assam Police arrested three bureaucrats across towns in the state for their alleged involvement in a cash-for-jobs scam. The police said they had recovered their answer sheets from the residence of the chairman, Rakesh Kumar Paul, who was arrested in November 2016. These were reportedly duplicate answer sheets, written after the actual examination was held. “We found the answer sheets during a raid at Paul’s house in November itself,” said Surjit Singh Panesar, the investigating officer.

On January 2 2023, the Biplab Kumar Sharma Commission sent a notification regarding the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) cash-for-job fraud to another gazetted officer. The APSC cash-for-job scam has compelled Ganpati Roy, Superintendent of Taxes, to appear before the commission for interrogation within 15 days. Roy is accused of acquiring the position unlawfully. On December 1 of last year, the commission gave two gazetted officers, DSP Bhanita Nath and Superintendent of Excise Manavi Das, a 15-day notice to appear in court. It was claimed that DSP Nath and Excise Superintendent Das used unethical methods to get the APS jobs and that DSP Nath gained the APS position through dishonest means. Several pieces of information that the BK Sharma Commission had acquired were used to inform the notices that were delivered to the two officers.

Additionally, according to a statement made by the Enforcement Directorate on December 29 2022, Samedur Rahman, a former board member of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), has had assets worth a total of Rs 4.90 crore attached in accordance with anti-money laundering legislation. In connection with a case of alleged improper recruitment of applicants through the APSC, action has also been initiated against his family members.