

BHUBANESWAR: The BJD on Sunday alleged that the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and not Sankar Prusty, who was arrested on Saturday for his alleged involvement in the police SI recruitment scam, is the real mastermind of the racket.
Addressing a media conference here, Rajya Sabha MP Sulata Deo and party spokesperson Lenin Mohanty alleged that the work of conducting the recruitment examination was given to Panchsoft Technologies, owned by Prusty, with the knowledge of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who holds the Home portfolio.
Stating that Prusty was close to BJP leaders, they alleged his photographs with the ruling party’s top leadership, including the chief minister, and also his joining the party, are doing the rounds on social media.
Alleging that the CM and the CMO were directly involved in the scam, the BJD leaders said the state government had first announced a Crime Branch and then a CBI probe to protect the big leaders involved in it.
They also asked why the central PSU ITI Limited hand over the job of conducting the examination to inexperienced private entities like Silicon Digitech and Panchsoft Technologies.
The BJD leaders said that had the police in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh not brought the incident to the notice of the public, the people of the state would not have known about this police SI recruitment scam sponsored by the ruling BJP.
“Looking at the whole incident, it has become clear that it is not possible to run such a huge recruitment racket without the involvement of the big leaders,” they added.