Bhubaneswar: In a major breakthrough, the Odisha Crime Branch Saturday arrested the alleged mastermind of the Sub-Inspector (SI) recruitment examination scam, Shankar Prusty, from Uttarakhand near the Nepal border, officials said.
According to a source, Prusty had been absconding since the scam surfaced and was believed to be hiding along the Nepal border to evade arrest. Following extensive surveillance and coordinated operations, a team of Crime Branch officers tracked him down and apprehended him.
Prusty, who headed Panchsoft Company, is accused of orchestrating large-scale irregularities in the SI recruitment process, including the leak of question papers and alleged monetary transactions with candidates.
Earlier, Prusty had moved the Orissa High Court seeking anticipatory bail, which the court rejected. His wife, Deeptimayee Sahu, who is also an accused in the case, was directed by the court to appear before the trial court and apply for regular bail. However, both had been evading arrest since then.
The SI exam scam, which exposed serious lapses in the state’s recruitment mechanism, has triggered widespread concerns over transparency and fairness in competitive examinations conducted by the Odisha government.
