Questions raised over recruitment process in Assam Police

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The organization Fight against Injustice of APSC has raised questions about the process of recruitment in Assam Police. In this context, the organization has highlighted the case of Sub-Inspector Badri Prasad Baruwati.

Baruwati was working as SI in Government Railway Police (GRP) at the Guwahati Railway Station for the last two years and then he was appointed as the GRP in charge of Kamakhya Railway Station. Baruwati was arrested in June this year in a gold smuggling case. On June 15, police had seized 835 gm gold from two persons in Bharalumukh in Guwahati. During interrogation of the two accused, Baruwati's involvement in gold smuggling came to light.

Manas Pratim Barua, admin of Fight against Injustice of APSC, said that in 2008, 115 Sub-Inspectors (SI) were recruited in Assam Police. One of them was SI Badri Prasad Baruwati. "There were anomalies in the recruitemnt process due to which many deserving candidates were deprived. Around 17 people filed a writ petition -WP (C) 4435/2008- in Gauhati High Court against the list of selected candidates that was published. The then IGP (Admin) filed an affidavit in the court on February 14, 2011. Here he admitted that inadvertent mistakes had been made during preparation list of selected candidates under reserved category. The IGP had assured the court that the mistakes would be rectified and a corrected list of selected candidates would be brought out by the department," said Manas Pratim Barua.

After this, a new list containing names of 115 selected candidates was released. In this new list, names of 19 candidates from the previous list were dropped and in their place, 19 new candidates were included. "Out of the 19 candidates whose names were dropped, one such candidate was Badri Prasad Baruwati," said Barua. "The question that we want to raise is how was Badri Prasad Baruwati working as SI when his selected was not valid? And Baruwati is not the only such undeserving candidate, all the 19 candidates whose names were dropped from the previous selection list are working in the Assam Police. How could this happen? Was Badri Prasad Baruwati involved in corrupt practises because his selection was invalid? These are questions that higher-ups in the police department must answer," said Barua.

Fight against Injustice of APSC has expressed hope that the Chief Minister, who holds the Home portfolio, will look into these irregularities in the recruitment process in Assam Police and take necessary steps to clean up the system.

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