GUWAHATI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Assam Police on Friday filed a chargesheet against 36 people in connection with the sub-inspector recruitment exam paper leak scam.
Addressing a press conference here at the CID headquarters in Guwahati, IGP Surender Kumar said that the 2,621-page chargesheet has been filed in the court of special judge, Kamrup (Metro) in 87 days starting from the date of the first arrest in the case. A 1,271-page case diary has also been submitted by the CID in addition to the chargesheet.
The list of accused includes the former director general of police Prasanta Kumar Dutta and Dibon Deka, who are the prime accused in the case.
Dutta, who was on the run following the case, was detained from Kakarbhitta area along the India-Nepal border on October 6 and subsequently handed over to the Assam Police by cops from West Bengal. Deka was arrested on September 30 in Barpeta district in lower Assam when he was en route to Guwahati to surrender before the police.
Deka was suspended by the state BJP from primary membership following his arrest.
The accused have been charged under sections 120B, 119, 120, 166, 201, 204, 212, 406, 409, 420, 461, 506 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, section 66 (B) of the Information Technology Act, sections 25 (1-B)(a) and 25(1-B)(h) of the Arms Act, section 98(a) of the Assam Police Act and section 7(a), 7(b), 7(c), 8, 12, 13(1)(a) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988.
A total of 183 witnesses have been named as prosecution witnesses.
The IGP informed that the crime was spread over 24 places across four districts — Kamrup (Metro), Nalbari, Barpeta and Bongaingaon district.
“During the investigation, a sum of Rs 6,26,96,440 was recovered along with 32 mobile phones, 11 digital video recorders and 10 vehicles from the accused,” Kumar said.
Three different cases had been registered following the leak of question papers in the SI recruitment exam. The case lodged with the Diphu police (No 175/2020) was amalgamated with the case registered with the CID (No 21/2020) on November 25. Later, the case lodged with the crime branch (Case No. 13/2020) was also amalgamated with the CID case on December 1.
The case registered with the CID was based on the FIR lodged by the former chairperson of the State Level Police Recruitment Board Pradeep Kumar.
Altogether 26 persons have been arrested in connection with CID case, 11 in connection with crime branch case and three in connection with the Diphu police station case.
Over 66,000 candidates had appeared the recruitment exam for 597 posts of the sub-inspectors on September 20. The exam was cancelled immediately after it began following the leak of question papers.
Later, the recruitment exam was re-conducted by Dibrugarh University on November 22. A total of 3,162 candidates have cleared the written test.