Odisha govt recommends CBI probe into police-job-for-cash scam

Bowing to demands from several quarters, including the Opposition and job aspirants, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday announced handing over the investigation of the much-publicized jobs-for-cash scam involving the police sub-inspector recruitment examination to the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI).

The alleged manipulation of the recruitment exam amid charges of overt patronage of top officials had triggered statewide uproar and raised serious questions on the government job recruitment exercise.

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“There were allegations of widespread irregularities and corruption in the Odisha Police Sub-Inspector Recruitment Examination. The investigation had been handed over to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department. The investigation conducted into it so far has revealed that the roots of this corruption may have spread to other states including Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. In addition, there is also suspicion that an inter-state organized criminal syndicate is involved in it.

In view of all this, the chief minister has decided to hand over the investigation to the CBI to completely unmask this corruption and take all the wrong-doers to task and mete out exemplary punishment to them”, a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office said.

In addition, the state government is considering setting up a permanent commission for selection of personnel in the police and other uniformed services, CMO’s statement added.

The written test of the Combined Police Service Examination, 2024, was scheduled to be held on October 5 and 6, but was postponed by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) after 117 job aspirants including three middlemen were arrested in Berhampur. Later, the Crime Branch took into custody three more accused persons in connection with the recruitment scandal.

Four of the main conspirators of the scam have also been arrested by CB-CID so far in connection with the scam.

The grave improprieties of the recruitment test were perpetrated mainly owing to outsourcing the conducting of the examination to dubious private agencies. Making mockery of the system, the conspirators who used it as a tool to collect money from job aspirants were taking the candidates to an undisclosed destination in Andhra Pradesh on buses, a few days before the test, when the skeletons tumbled out of the recruitment test cupboard. The aspirants were being taken to prepare and train them well allegedly with the leaked questions.

The government-run Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) had awarded the conducting of the exam to ITI Limited, a central PSU, which later subcontracted the exam conduct process to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab and Panchsoft Technologies, ironically headed by Sankar, one of the masterminds of the scam.

As many as 1.53 lakh candidates applied for 933 police sub-inspector posts, the recruitment test of which is now postponed after the scam erupted. The exam was earlier scheduled to be held on 8 and 9 March was postponed and was rescheduled on 5 and 6 October.