GUWAHATI: Jailed activist Akhil Gogoi said on Saturday that the question paper leak of the Assam Police recruitment exam is a "scam" much bigger than the Vyapam scandal that rocked Madhya Pradesh a few years back, and alleged that the BJP-led state government was involved in it.
Gogoi, the adviser of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) who is lodged in jail in two NIA cases, is being treated at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for different ailments after recovering from COVID-19.
"This is a bigger scam than the Vyapam scandal. Not only some retired police officials or individual BJP leaders are involved, but also the entire BJP and the state government is behind this job scandal," he told reporters while being shifted from one building to another inside the GMCH complex.
The Vyapam scam, unearthed in 2013, is related to irregularities in examinations conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board for admission in professional courses and state services, and nearly two dozen people linked to it mysteriously died.
"By handing over the probe to the CID, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is trying to manipulate the investigation to save the actual culprits. This entire scandal happened as they were giving jobs to their own people who follow their ideologies," Gogoi alleged.
The firebrand leader also alleged that all examinations conducted by the BJP-led government so far are scandalous because only one particular agency of a "close person" has been entrusted to carry out all the recruitment processes.
Recruitments in different departments such as the Panchayat and Rural Development, Irrigation, and Assam Power Development Corporation Ltd were also not clean and massive irregularities took place, he claimed.
On September 20, the question paper of the written examination for 597 posts of unarmed sub-inspectors in Assam Police got leaked, following which the test was cancelled minutes after it had commenced.
The Assam Police's CID and Crime Branch are probing the scandal and have raided various locations, mainly unaccounted properties linked to ex-DIG PK Dutta, across the state.
The investigating agencies also searched the residences and other properties of senior BJP leader Diban Deka, who on Thursday said on social media that he was involved with the examination process and has now "left Assam" as he might be "killed anytime" because "many big and corrupt officials" of the Assam Police are involved in the scam.
Already 12 persons, including a woman employee of the state Irrigation Department and one from the Special Task Force (STF) of Assam Police, have been arrested and over half a dozen others detained.