[ Bengia Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, 25 Apr: Former secretary of the Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board (APSSB), SK Jain, who had been suspended by the state government, has been reinstated in service by the Government of India.
His suspension was revoked by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2021 itself. Jain, who was secretary of the APSSB when the cash-for-jobs scam hit the state, was suspended by the government on 3 March, 2020.
The ministry, in an order, stated that after considering the facts surrounding his suspension, it found it to be unjustified. Further, it ordered that Jain’s period of suspension from 3 March 2020 to 2 March 2021 shall be treated as period spent on duty for all purposes, and that he shall be paid the full pay and allowances to which he would have been entitled, had he not been suspended, subject to adjustment in respect of subsistence allowance and other allowances already paid.
The APPSB cash-for-jobs scam had rocked the state in March 2020. More than 20 people, including the then undersecretary of the board, Kapter Ringu, were arrested for their involvement in the scam. Ringu was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), formerly known as Special Investigation Cell, on 20 February, 2020, and was put under suspension. The ACB registered a case [u/s 468/469/471/120 B IPC r/w Section 13 (2) PC Act] against her over the scam. She was dismissed from service in 2022.
The ACB chargesheeted 19 persons allegedly involved in the scam. The APSSB had conducted the examination for 125 state government posts of LDC, JSA and UDC on 2 February, 2020, across the state and declared the results on 14 February, shortlisting 315 candidates.
The board came under public scrutiny after a suspicious optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet was seen doing the rounds on social media soon after the results of the exam for lower divisional clerk (LDC), junior secretariat assistant (JSA), and other posts were published on its website.
None of the markers of the OMR sheet had been shaded in the multiple-choice answer sheet, implying that the candidate had left the answer sheet blank. However, the candidate was shortlisted for the skill test as per the result declared.
An investigation by the ACB revealed that numerous officials of the board were involved in the scam, in which candidates had paid bribes to secure LDC, JSA, and UDC jobs.
