Guwahati, (Samajweekly) The main opposition party in Assam, the Congress, on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal after alleging that his office was involved in the police recruitment question paper leak scam.
Assam’s Pradesh Congress President Ripun Bora and opposition leader Debabrata Saikia claimed that the police were taking action against “only the small players and trying to cover the major culprits involved the scam”.
Bora told the media: “Influential leaders of the ruling BJP are associated with the scam. The CM’s office is directly involved in this recruitment scam. A woman stenographer of an OSD in the CM’s secretariat is suspected to be involved in the scam. But no action has been taken against her yet.”
Saikia said that Sonowal had promised the people to provide good and transparent governance and a clean administration, and execute the Assam Accord in letter and spirit, but not a single assurance has been fulfilled even as governance has been spoiled by corruption and irregularities.
The Congress leaders announced that the party would hold protests in front of the office of the Superintendent of Police in all the 33 districts across the state on October 5.
The Chairman of Assam State Level Police Recruitment Board (SLPRB), Pradeep Kumar, quit the post earlier this week citing moral responsibility for the recruitment test paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the written exam on September 20. A probe into the sub-inspector recruitment scam is underway.
Following the direction of the Chief Minister, the CID and the Crime Branch of Assam Police are probing the exam paper leak issue.
The investigating team has raided various locations, including that of former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Prasanta Kumar Dutta, who is now on the run.
According to the police, so far 20 people, including a woman employee of the state irrigation department and one from the Special Task Force of Assam Police, have been arrested in connection with the scam. The investigation is being personally supervised by Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta.
On September 20, the SLPRB had cancelled the written test a few minutes after it had started after the question paper was leaked on social media.
Over 66,000 candidates had appeared in 154 centres in all the 33 districts of the state for the written test for 597 posts of sub-inspectors in Assam Police.
There are reports that ex-DIG Dutta and a few political leaders have fled to to Nepal as the former police officer’s daughter lived there.
Assam Police have already contacted the External Affairs Ministry to take appropriate action against the absconders.
