Bhubaneswar: Odisha Police Sunday arrested another person for his alleged involvement in irregularities in the sub-inspector recruitment examination, as the Opposition intensified demand for a CBI probe or a judicial inquiry into the scam.
The crime branch of the police apprehended a 43-year-old man in connection with the SI exam irregularities, taking the total number of arrests to 119, including 114 aspirants, officials said.
“Based on the evidence found against the accused, he was arrested Sunday, followed by a sustained interrogation and seizure of several incriminating materials from his personal possession,” an official statement said.
The written examination for recruitment of SIs was postponed by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) September 30, after the Berhampur Police arrested several people, including the 114 aspirants, from the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border.
They were going to some undisclosed place in the neighbouring state to get “special coaching” before the written examination October 5-6, police had said.
According to police sources, each candidate had allegedly agreed to pay Rs 25 lakh for one SI post, with Rs 10 lakh as an advance and the remaining Rs 15 lakh after getting the job.
Crime branch officials also conducted a search operation here at an institute, which acted as a centre for online recruitment examinations.
DSP of crime branch, Rabindra Mallik, said the centre belonged to a person suspected to be involved in the scam.
Meanwhile, senior BJD leader Pritiranjan Gharai alleged that the state government handed over the case to the crime branch “to protect the real faces involved in the scam”.
He demanded a CBI probe into the irregularities.
“The case should be handed over to the CBI or a judicial inquiry ordered to bring transparency in the examination,” said state Congress president Bhakta Charan Das.
Reacting to the opposition’s allegations, BJP legislator Babu Singh said the Odisha government is committed to ensuring justice for the aspirants.
“The previous BJD government indulged in these practices, and now the BJP government is cracking down on such rackets,” he claimed.
PTI