BHUBANESWAR: A month after the police sub-inspector (SI) recruitment scam rocked the state, Sankar Prusty, the mastermind of the fraud, was arrested by the Crime Branch of Odisha Police from Uttarakhand on Saturday.
Sources in the CB said Sankar was nabbed from the bordering areas of India and Nepal. He had apparently fled to Nepal after his involvement came to the fore. However, after a cooling period when he returned, a CB team caught hold of him in Uttarakhand.
Initially, his movement was tracked in New Delhi. He had fled the state in his SUV after the scam came to the fore and went into hiding in the national capital. However, as the CB team went hot on his trail, he escaped to Nepal. As Sankar reentered the country, the agency’s officers apprehended him from the northern state on Saturday morning. “Sankar will be flown back to Odisha on Sunday,” said sources in the agency.
Sankar headed Panchsoft Technologies, a firm which was contracted certain works of the SI recruitment examination.
The important test, conducted by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB), was awarded to ITI Limited, a central PSU based out of Kolkata. The ITI Ltd, however, sub-contracted the work to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab and key tasks were given to Panchsoft Technologies.
The CB investigation revealed that Sankar was running a syndicate with the assistance of two associates Muna Mohanty and Srikanta Moharana. Both Muna and Srikanta were held last month.
Probe also hinted about involvement of actors from outside the state in the recruitment scam. The scam came to fore on September 30 when police arrested 117 people, including 114 candidates who were on their way to Andhra Pradesh.
As the case sparked widespread outrage, the state government entrusted the probe to the Crime Branch. Later, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi decided to hand over the case to Central Bureau of Investigation since the scam had multi-state links.
The CB has arrested 124 people in connection with the case. A special court in Berhampur granted conditional bail to all the candidates on October 29.
