Guwahati: A special court here on Monday convicted Rakesh Kumar Paul, former chairman of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), and 31 others for recruitment of agricultural development officers in lieu of money in 2015.
A total 80 candidates were selected during Paul's tenure but it created controversy when a candidate filed a case in August 2017 alleging that Paul and others had demanded a bribe of Rs 15 lakh from him with a promise to clear his interview.
The results of the examinations were declared in 2016. But after the case was registered in 2017, police examined 1,075 candidates who had appeared for the examination and found that marks secured by 27 candidates were altered and increased.
"It appears that the Commission under the leadership of accused Rakesh Kumar Paul violated the Assam Agriculture Service Rules, 1980 and by passing the conditions given in the published advertisement awarded marks in additional qualification and experience to the candidates."
"The marks under the head of additional qualification and experience were also not given judiciously; but awarded whimsically. The Commission violated the APSC Rules 2010, particularly Rule 19, did not allow the Principal Controller of Examinations to perform his duty and in the name of selecting right candidates, they did what they liked and selected their favourable candidates. Besides, some deserving candidates who got cut off marks or more in the interview, were simply made unqualified by reducing their marks in the merit list. The entire interview process was a mockery," said the order of the court passed by special judge Dipak Thakuria.
The court acquitted 10 accused giving them benefit of doubt while one accused turned approver.
Paul, who is out on bail at present, and 66 others are facing trial in another alleged cash-for-jobs scam for recruitment of State civil service and police service officers in 2013.
The scam allowed BJP, which came to power for the first time in Assam in 2016, ammunition to attack the Congress government led by former CM Tarun Gogoi, who died in 2020.