SC asks CBI to file report on Paul's assets

Three absconding; up to five answer scripts duplicated

Staff Reporter

Guwahati, April 20: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Gauhati High Court’s order asking the CBI to investigate the assets of former APSC chairman Rakesh Paul that are suspected to be disproportionate to his known sources of income. The apex court has asked the CBI to file a report within six months. Paul had challenged the high court order at the apex court.

Meanwhile, three people are still absconding in the notorious APSC cash-for-job scam in the State, while Dibrugarh police, which is probing the matter, believes that in the next one-two months some more officers from the 2015 and 2016 batches of the ACS, APS and allied services under the APSC are likely to be arrested. The police is inching towards conclusion of its investigation.

About 2,000 answer scripts of the candidates of the 2015 and 2016 batches had been sent to forensic laboratories across the country, of which the results of 1,500 came back. A total of 44 arrests have been made so far, of which 36 are from ACS, APS and allied services (2015 and 2016 batches).

According to police sources, another 15-20 officers are likely to be apprehended once the results of the remaining answer scripts come back to the State from forensic laboratories.

The three absconding are Rakesh Gupta (APS) and businessmen Rajib Paul (brother of disgraced former APSC chairman Rakesh Paul) and Sudip Das. In Rajib Paul’s printing press, answer scripts were duplicated for forgery.

During investigation, Dibrugarh police found that some officers had faked up to five answer scripts out of the total of six subjects that the APSC conducts examinations for. In the case of the recently arrested Sonitpur DTO Prasanjit Ghosh, three answer scripts had been duplicated.

Talking to The Sentinel, Dibrugarh police ASP Surajit Singh Paneswar, under whom the whole investigation is going on, said, “Our investigation is on the right track. All the arrests made so far have been based on evidence, and if in future some are arrested, it too will be based on evidence. We believe within the next two months, our probe should be over. Then trial will begin in court. So far, four chargesheets have been submitted to the Special Court, Assam.”

Dibrugarh police suspects that in the case of earlier batches also, some fraud could have taken place but probe is not possible as their answer scripts have already been burnt. The APSC is required to preserve answer scripts of candidates only up to six months.