Police have arrested another key person in connection with the multi-crore sub-inspector (SI) recruitment examination scam in Odisha on Monday, the Crime Branch revealed in a statement.
The Crime Branch identified the arrested as Suresh Nayak, promoter of M/s Silicon Tech Pvt. Ltd. With the arrest of Nayak, a total of 125 people, including 114 job aspirants, have been held so far in the case.
The job aspirants were, however, released on bail three days ago. Nayak was arrested days after police nabbed Sankar Prusty, the owner of Panchsoft Technologies.
It is pertinent to mention that the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) had outsourced the conduct of the Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE)-2024 for SI recruitment examination for the appointment of 933 sub-inspectors to ITI Limited, which later sublet the work to Bhubaneswar-based M/s Silicon Tech Pvt. Ltd.
Silicon Techlab, in turn, reportedly assigned key responsibilities to Panchsoft Technologies to prepare, print, and transport question papers for the examination.
In the statement, the Crime Branch said that the investigation has established that Suresh Chandra Nayak was the sole individual responsible for the preparation, printing, and transportation of question papers.
“During the course of investigation, it came to light that Suresh Chandra Nayak was in continuous contact with Shankar Prusty during his escape. Evidence has established that Nayak had provided shelter to Prusty in his company guest house located at Kalkaji, New Delhi, and then alerted him to abscond from the said premises and evade police arrest and investigation, which clearly established their nexus,” it said.
A Crime Branch team had earlier succeeded in arresting Prusty, the mastermind, from Uttarakhand along the Indo-Nepal border, while he was allegedly attempting to flee the country.
The Crime Branch further stated that Nayak maintained close links with Prusty.
The Crime Branch further informed that the investigation is continuing to identify and apprehend all other individuals involved in the organised criminal conspiracy.
Though the written examination for the SI posts was scheduled to be held on October 5 and 6, it was postponed after the irregularities were detected.
Notably, the Odisha Police had first busted the large-scale scam with the arrest of 114 aspirants and three middlemen following the interception of three buses in Andhra Pradesh on the night of September 29 when they were going to a “special coaching” centre in Vijayanagaram from Bhubaneswar.
The arrested aspirants had paid Rs 10 lakh each to the racket, and were supposed to pay another Rs 25 lakh after securing the job, police said.
Later, several more brokers were arrested, including the aides of the mastermind of the scam, who operated from Delhi. However, the mastermind is yet to be apprehended.
Another 110 candidates were supposed to get similar ‘coaching’ in West Bengal’s Digha, which is located on the Odisha border, on September 30, but due to the police action in Berhampur, it was cancelled, police said.
The state government has recommended a CBI investigation into the scam as it has inter-state implications, involving organised gangs.
Prusty has claimed that the scam involved irregularities worth Rs 1,000 crore, and he “surrendered” to unmask those involved in the conspiracy.
Meanwhile, opposition BJD alleged that the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) was directly involved in the scam.
“Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi is the home minister, and the OPRB conducted the examination. How come Prusty’s organisation, Panchsoft Technology, got the contract without knowledge of the CM,” BJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Sulata Deo said.
BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty alleged that the state government first announced a Crime Branch probe and then a CBI investigation to “protect the big leaders involved in it”.
