Odisha sub-inspector recruitment scam mastermind held at India-Nepal border

Bhubaneswar: The suspected mastermind of the sub-inspector recruitment scam in Odisha was arrested from the India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand, police said on Sunday.

Shankar Prusty was on the run for over a month after the scam came to the fore on September 30. He was nabbed on Saturday with the help of Uttarakhand Police and brought to Bhubaneswar on Sunday morning on a transit remand, they said.

"A team under the leadership of DSP Anila Anand of CID CB was continuously following him. He was frequently changing his location. Finally, he was traced by the team and arrested near the Nepal border in Uttarakhand," said a statement issued by the Crime Branch.

Prusty is the owner of Panchsoft Technologies, which was given a part of the contract to conduct the written examination for filling 933 sub-inspector posts in the police and other uniformed services.

With this, a total of 124 people, including 114 job aspirants, have been arrested in the multi-crore scam. The job aspirants were, however, released on bail two days ago.

Following his arrest, Prusty was flown to Bhubaneswar from Delhi. From the Bhubaneswar airport, he was directly taken to the Crime Branch headquarters in Cuttack for interrogation, officials said.

At the airport, he told reporters that he was in no way involved in the alleged irregularities.

"I have no link to the scam, to Muna Mohanty, or any of the accused persons. I have already approached both the Orissa High Court and the Supreme Court seeking justice. I am sure I will get bail," he said.

The recruitment examination was scheduled to be held on October 5 and 6, but was postponed after the irregularities were detected, officials said.

The irregularities were detected after the 114 aspirants and three suspected brokers were nabbed on the night of September 29 at the state's border with Andhra Pradesh when they were going to a "special coaching" centre in Vijayanagaram from Bhubaneswar.

The OPRB had outsourced the conduct of the Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE) 2024 to PSU ITI Ltd, which further sub-contracted the work to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab.

Silicon Techlab, in turn, assigned key responsibilities to Panchsoft Technologies, headed by Prusty.

The arrested aspirants had paid Rs 10 lakh each to the racket, and were supposed to pay another Rs 25 lakh after securing the job, police said.

Later, some more brokers were arrested, including the aides of the mastermind. However, the mastermind is yet to be nabbed.

Another 110 candidates were supposed to get similar 'coaching' in West Bengal's Digha, which is located on the Odisha border, on September 30, but due to the police action in Berhampur, it was cancelled, police said.

The state government has recommended a CBI investigation into the scam as it has inter-state implications, involving organised gangs.