Hundreds of aspiring police sub-inspectors demonstrated in Bhubaneswar on Friday following another postponement of their written examination.
The Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) rescheduled the Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE), 2024, which was originally slated for October 5 and 6. This decision came after 117 people were arrested in Berhampur, police said.
Of those arrested, 114 were aspirants who had allegedly paid an advance of Rs 10 lakh to a criminal network to secure the jobs. Police apprehended them en route to a ‘special coaching centre’ in Andhra Pradesh. The remaining three arrested individuals are suspected brokers involved in facilitating these deals, they further said.
A total of 1.53 lakh candidates have applied for 933 police sub-inspector positions. The examination was initially scheduled for March 8 and 9, before being moved to October 5 and 6, and now postponed for a second time. Hundreds of aspirants protested near the State Library in Bhubaneswar, demanding “justice.”
They accused the OPRB of “gross negligence” and alleged that it may have facilitated the “malpractices.”
The opposition Congress and BJD also criticized the BJP government over the issue, alleging a multi-crore job scam was happening in the state.
The BJD released purported photos showing some state ministers with an individual whose company, they claimed, was awarded the exam contract and was the scam’s main orchestrator.
Ipsita Sahoo, BJD students’ wing president, alleged these photos indicate the state government and BJP leaders’ “direct involvement in the irregularities” and called for a CBI probe.
Sahoo also claimed the state government has cancelled 16 recruitment examinations in the last 15 months due to irregularities. She questioned why only the aspirants were arrested and not the racketeers who accepted the money, promising employment.
“Only three brokers were arrested, while others are roaming freely. High-ranking officials of the state government and BJP leaders were backing the racket that sabotaged the examination,” she alleged.
State Congress spokesperson Bibhuti Mohapatra claimed that the son of a former senior police officer is among the arrested aspirants. This, he stated, leads to the suspicion that “senior officials and BJP leaders are involved in the racket.”
State BJP president Manmohan Samal, on the other hand, denied all the allegations. He asserted the state government’s commitment to transparency as the reason for the postponement.
“Had that been a case, why did the state government postpone the examination on its own after getting information of sabotage?” he said when asked about the opposition’s claims.
