Bhubaneswar: In another significant development in the police sub-inspector (SI) recruitment examination scam, the Crime Branch of Odisha Police arrested Suresh Chandra Nayak, owner of Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab, after a marathon interrogation last night.
He will be produced in the court, along with the alleged mastermind, Shankar Prusty, who was nabbed near Nepal border area in Uttarakhand on Saturday, on Monday.
The Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB), according to reports, had outsourced the conduct of the Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE) 2024 to ITI Limited, a central public-sector undertaking (PSU) headquartered in Kolkata. However, ITI Limited further sub-contracted the job to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab, which in turn assigned key responsibilities to Panchsoft Technologies headed by Prusty.
Nayak oversaw the preparation, printing, and transport of question papers.
“It is learnt that he (Prusty) in collusion with Silicon Techlab was planning to engage in large-scale organised malpractices during CPSE,” the TNIE earlier reported, quoting a confidential intelligence report.
Evidence also showed that Nayak was in constant contact with Prusty, providing him shelter at his company’s guest house in Kalkaji, New Delhi, and later alerting him to flee to evade arrest–exposing their criminal nexus.
Prusty was leader of the crime syndicate and operated from the backdoor through agents, who contacted aspirants, collected original certificates and blank cheques, and promised question papers in exchange for kickbacks ranging from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.
He went off radar as the scam came to the fore after Berhampur Police intercepted three buses near the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border on September 30 and detained 117 people, including three agents. Subsequently, Prusty’s two main associates Munna Mohanty and Srikanta Maharana alias Rinku were arrested on October 16. And a day later, four more accused Priyadarsini Samal, T Abhimanyu Dora, Arabinda Das and Biswaranjan Behera, who were agents and part of the syndicate, were also nabbed.
While being escorted to the crime branch office upon his arrival at Bhubaneswar airport from Delhi on Sunday, Prusty claimed that the job racket to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore operated during the previous (BJD) government. “I surrendered to help the government unmask those involved in the broader conspiracy. The role of a previous government needs investigation. I have all the evidence against the persons who conspired together to cancel the SI recruitment examination. I will submit the evidence to the state government,” he said.
Prusty went into hiding in Delhi and later went to Uttarakhand before escaping to Nepal to evade arrest. He took the help of a monk and hitchhiked in the latter’s car to Nepal, where he stayed in a homestay and maintained a very low profile.
These arrests have come even as the Odisha government on October 22 recommended a CBI investigation into the alleged multi-crore scam to dismantle the network, which is believed to have inter-state implications involving organised gangs.
