Sleaze, Suicide and a Job Scam

The suicide of a woman BJP leader in Assam has snowballed into a major "cash-for-jobs scam", which resulted in the arrest of five individuals, all linked to the saffron party.

- Kaushik Deka

The controversy has sent shockwaves across the state as the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government, for the past two years, has been receiving public applause for introducing transparency in the recruitment process of government jobs. Job aspirants, particularly from the rural areas and economically backward sections, have often publicly acknowledged that they got government jobs through a merit-based recruitment test and did not have to pay any bribe.

On August 11, Indrani Tahbildar, general secretary of the Kisan Morcha of the Assam BJP, died by suicide at her Guwahati home after her alleged intimate photos with Anurag Chaliha, a Kisan Morcha member from her home district Golaghat, had gone viral on social media. Based on a complaint by Indrani’s husband Ritesh Tahbildar, the police arrested Chaliha on the charges of forcing the woman BJP leader to take her own life. The probe into how the private photographs of Indrani were leaked led the police team to an unexpected discovery: the cash-for-jobs scam.

During a raid at Chaliha’s home, the police recovered scores of admit cards of candidates appearing for various government recruitment tests. Besides, audio clips of conversations between Indrani, Chaliha and others exposed cash transactions of cash in exchange for jobs. According to police sources, Indrani and Chaliha had collected a large sum of money from gullible jobseekers with the promise of providing them with government jobs. Some junior BJP leaders helped the duo in this racket. However, when they could not ensure the recruitment of these candidates as promised, the aspirants started demanding a refund of the bribe money. They put pressure on the junior BJP leaders who had collected money on behalf of Indrani and Chaliha.