Jobs On Sale

The Assam police busts a mega job scam. Coming in the first year of CM Sarbananda Sonowal’s government, it’s also being seen as a personal victory for him.

- Kaushik Deka

ON JUNE 17, 2016, WITHIN THREE weeks of taking charge as the chief minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal summoned all the members of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) and pulled them up over the multiple allegations that the commission sells jobs for cash. The constitutional body’s chairman, Rakesh Paul, responded by saying that the chief minister had no authority to instruct him or interfere in his work. The APSC chairman was right—the power to remove the chairman or the members of the public service commission has been vested exclusively with the President of India.

The chief minister was forced to remain a mute spectator, but not for too long. Help came from Dibrugarh, his hometown. On October 25, 2016, Angshumita Gogoi, a dentist, approached the district superintendent of police saying Nabakanta Patir, an assistant engineer with the town and country planning department in Dibrugarh, had asked for Rs 10 lakh for a ‘confirmed’ selection by the APSC for a government job. Gogoi had failed to secure a job in an earlier attempt through the APSC. Two days later, the police laid a trap and caught Patir red-handed with the cash. Patir’s arrest led to the arrest of Mamud Ali Choudhury, PSO of APSC member Samedur Rahman, in Rangiya on October 30, the chain of arrests finally leading up to Paul.