Berhampur: Ninety-four aspirants for sub-inspector jobs arrested by police for their alleged involvement in cheating, forgery and fraud in examination were Thursday released from jail here.
A special vigilance court here Wednesday granted conditional bail to 114 aspirants who were arrested by police October 1 on charge of their alleged involvement in the recruitment scam. The court allowed them to be released on bail on a bond of Rs 50,000 along with two sureties.
A total of 94 accused, including six women, were released on bail following the court order, said DN Barik, senior superintendent of the circle jail here. Another 20 persons, whose bail was granted, were not released as they could not produce the necessary documents, sources said.
The jail authorities released them in groups after verifying their documents, officials said.
As many as 123 persons, including 114 aspirants, were arrested by police in phases, on charges of cheating, forgery and fraud in police sub-inspector examination scheduled to be held October 5 and 6, conducted by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB).
The written examination was later postponed till further notice. Others held in the case were middlemen and agents of the organised crime syndicate.
Initially, Berhampur police arrested 117 persons, including three agents from the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border area September 30 night, while they were going towards Andhra Pradesh in three AC buses.
The police then, based on the preliminary investigation, said that the aspiring candidates, who paid first instalment of Rs 10 lakh of the agreed Rs 25 lakh per post of SI to the fraud syndicate, were going to some undisclosed place in Andhra Pradesh to get a copy of the question paper before the written examination.
Police accused all of them of being engaged in an organised crime for sabotaging the sub-inspector recruitment examination.
Though the case was first probed by the local police, it was later handed over to the crime branch of Odisha police.
Later, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi recommended a CBI probe into the incident. However, CBI was yet to initiate the investigation, sources said.
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