Guwahati News Desk: Special Vigilance Cell on Friday raided Gauhati University (GU) regarding the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) exam scam. Reportedly, the cell was carrying out operation in the university for the past few days and also arrested 11 people having connection with the scam. As per the reports, in today’s raid, the cell has seized answer sheets from the office of the university’s secretary.
Earlier in November this year, the Chief Minister’s Vigilance Cell, had too raided the university and seized digital evidence related to the APDCL recruitment exam. Sleuths of the Chief Minister’s Vigilance Cell had said that they would need some more time to seize all the OMR sheets of the APDCL exam. They are now arranging the OMR sheets district-wise.
The APDCL had conducted recruitment examinations for the posts of office-cum-field assistants, sahayaks and light vehicle drivers on February 17, 2019, and April 28, 2019, with the help of a third party– NEICOM. Allegations of anomalies in holding the examinations were levelled from various quarters. The allegations prompted the State Government to constitute an inquiry commission with Justice (retd) Anima Hazarika. Justice (retd) Hazarika recommended the authorities involve a third party to evaluate the answer scripts.
In August 2021, the APDCL had a meeting with Gauhati University. As per the decision, GU formed an external examination cell for the evaluation of the answer scripts. On August 24, 2021, APDCL handed over 1.80 lakh answered OMR sheets to GU for evaluation. According to sources, GU also took the help of NEICOM for the evaluation process.
On September 15, 2021, the Chief Minister’s Secretariat informed the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell that there were irregularities in the recruitment process of the APDCL. The CM’s Special Vigilance Cell registered a case 04/2021 u/s 120B/420/468/471 IPC, r/w Section 7/13(b) of PC (Amendment) Act, 2014 and arrested 10 people in connection with the recruitment exam scam. The prime accused, Ataur Rahman surrendered before the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell.