Assam: Rakesh Paul’s APSC Appointment Under Scrutiny in ‘Cash-for-Jobs’ Scam Report

GUWAHATI: The role of former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in appointing Rakesh Paul—first as a member and later as chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC)—has come under scrutiny in an inquiry commission report. During Paul’s tenure, large-scale irregularities in civil service examinations were uncovered.

The one-man Justice (Retd.) BK Sharma Commission, which separately investigated anomalies in the 2013 and 2014 Combined Competitive Examinations (CCE), described Paul’s appointment process as “ill-founded, paving the way for widespread corruption.”

Both the reports, which had been previously submitted to the state government, were tabled in the Assembly on Monday. The APSC was embroiled in a cash-for-jobs scam uncovered in 2016, leading to the arrest of nearly 70 people, including Paul and over 50 civil and police officials.

Paul was appointed as a member of the APSC in 2008 and became the chairman in 2013, a position he continued to hold till his arrest in 2016. The report highlighted that during his tenure, he oversaw more than 200 selections, raising concerns about irregularities in other recruitments too.

The report revealed that Paul’s appointment was based solely on a personal application he submitted to the CM on September 6, 2008, without any formal selection process or background verification.

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