Bhubaneswar: In a major breakthrough in sub-inspector (SI) recruitment scam, the Crime Branch of Odisha Police arrested an aide of key conspirator Sankar Prusty and three of his associates during raid on a farmhouse in Nayagarh district’s Daspalla area on Thursday evening.
The accused have been identified as Munna Mohanty, Abhimanyu Dora, Srikant Maharana and Soumya Priyadarshini Samant. They were arrested from the Daspalla area in Nayagarh district, police said.
According to sources, Munna was nabbed hours after narrowly escaping the raid earlier in the day. All three, hiding in a farmhouse owned by a former block chairman in Nayagarh, were apprehended on a tip-off after an extensive two-week-long search operation. They have been taken to Berhampur for further interrogation. “The accused had approached the SI exam candidates on behalf of Sankar,” said a senior CB officer.
The examination, conducted by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB), was awarded to ITI Limited, a central PSU based out of Kolkata, which sub-contracted the work to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab and key tasks were given to Panchsoft Technologies headed by Sankar, who is believed to be one of the main masterminds behind the recruitment scam.
Investigations revealed that Sankar had planned to take the candidates to Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh to provide them ‘training’ just a few days before the now-postponed Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE) 2024. A total of 114 candidates, arrested earlier in connection with the case, had collectively paid around Rs 11.40 crore in advance to him through Muna, who purchased an SUV during the Durga Puja festival using part of this money.
The Crime Branch had earlier issued a lookout circular against Shankar, a resident of Ganjam, and his associate Muna, who is from the Kalapathar area of Cuttack district.
Meanwhile, Shankar, who is currently absconding and is believed to have fled to Dubai via Nepal, has approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail. His wife Deeptimayi Sahu and Muna have also filed similar petitions.
The racket came to the fore after 114 candidates and three suspected brokers were nabbed on the night of September 29 along Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border while they were on the way to Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh from Bhubaneswar to procure the question papers of the exam from unknown middlemen.
Later, another two more suspected brokers, including one Arabinda Das, were arrested.
These candidates had already paid Rs 10 lakh each to obtain the question papers, and were supposed to pay another Rs 15 lakh after securing the job, police said.