BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government on Monday ordered compulsory retirement of tainted Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) official Biranchi Narayan Sahoo, how his luxurious lifestyle and ballooning wealth did not catch attention of the recruitment agency all these years has raised eyebrows. Private secretary to a member of OSSC, Biranchi was working with the Commission since its inception in 1994. After the Vigilance raids, his assets were estimated at Rs 3.51 crore.
While the anti-corruption wing is looking into the property of his wife and brother-in-law, what has raised questions is his modus operandi which never raised suspicion. For a panel that dealt with recruitment of hundreds of candidates into government jobs, it was not possible to overlook his making a fortune out of the government job.
He had 14 plots in Bhubaneswar, Puri and Khurda , two double-storeyed buildings and much more movable assets. He and his wife Sudhansubala apparently undertook five foreign trips. The wife, an insurance agent, alone made another five.“It’s surprising that Biranchi was making such obscene amount of money to own assets but no one noticed. If he accumulated such wealth by abusing his position at OSSC, it is not possible to evade attention,” said an investigator.
Vigilance is investigating if he had access to candidates selected for Group B and Group C posts and whether he contacted the successful ones by saying they had not cleared the examinations and he could fix it for them. “Since there has been no formal complaint of corruption from candidates who did not clear the tests over the years, we assume he may have conned successful candidates,” said the sources.
The investigating agency had earlier recovered admit cards of applicants from Biranchi’s mobile phone and his house. It has also launched a detailed probe to ascertain whether Biranchi had abused his official position and if anyone else was hand-in-glove with him.
Meanwhile, OSSC Chairman Nirmal Chandra Mishra told The New Indian Express that the Commission has not received any complaint of job scam and there was no question of an internal inquiry into the matter.In a related development, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) activists led by State president Yashir Nawaz protested in front of OSSC office in the city and demanded fair and transparent investigation into the alleged job scam. About 70 protestors were taken into preventive custody and released later in the day.