GUWAHATI: Assam BJP leader Diban Deka, who is the prime accused in a case pertaining to leakage of question paper of a test for recruitment of police sub-inspectors (SIs), surrendered before the police.
Late Wednesday night, he gave up before the sleuths of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Patacharkuchi in lower Assam’s Nalbari district, a week after he had gone into hiding.
He was subjected to interrogation by the CID and is expected to be produced before a court in Guwahati later in the day.
The BJP, which heads the state’s three-party government, distanced itself from Deka after his alleged involvement in the scam had come to the fore.
While some BJP leaders said they did not know this man, the party said he was not holding any post or position in it. However, according to his Facebook profile, Deka is a “national executive member” of the BJP’s Kishan Morcha.
Recently, he was handed over to the CID by a retired IPS officer, Pradeep Kumar. However, the CID let him off due to lack of evidence against him at that point of time.
Kumar was the chairman of the State Level Police Recruitment Board that had conducted the test on September 20. He resigned from the post on Sunday owning moral responsibility.
One PK Dutta, who is a former Deputy Inspector General of Police, was also allegedly involved in the scam and is evading arrest.
With Assembly elections due early next year, the scam gave opposition Congress enough ammo to fire at the BJP. Alleging that several BJP leaders were involved in the scam, the Congress demanded that the case be probed by a sitting judge of the Gauhati High Court.
The test to fill up 597 posts was cancelled even while the candidates were writing their answers in exam halls. Around 66,000 candidates had appeared in it.
So far, the police arrested around 20 people, including candidates, in connection with the case. According to reports, the question paper was sold at Rs 10-15 lakh.