Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 22 Sep: A group of aggrieved aspirants, terming itself the ‘Paper Leakage Issue Committee (AE Civil, APPSC 2021-22)’ on Thursday demanded investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the recent APPSC question paper leakage case.
The members of the committee claimed that they have no faith in the high-level committee constituted by the state government on Wednesday to probe the case.
“We strongly demand the state government for ED and CBI level investigation in paper leakage case. The aspirants no longer have faith in any ‘high-level’ committee constituted by the state government to probe the case,” said Techi Puru, the chairman of the committee.
Puru described the formation of the high-level committee as “eyewash,” and said that police investigation has revealed involvement of government officers in the case.
“We do not buy or subscribe to the statement made by APPSC member Jarken Gamlin that no officer of the commission is involved in the fiasco except accused Taket Jerang,” Puru said.
The committee has also demanded resignation of APPSC Chairman Nipo Nabam and Secretary Jayanta Kumar Roy on moral grounds, stating that “numerous malpractices occurred ever since Nabam was appointed as chairman.”
“We will boycott all APPSC examinations until the commission is reshuffled,” Puru said, and appealed to the chief minister and the governor to “write to the president of India regarding reshuffling in the APPSC and termination of corrupt officers.”
Highlighting the Assam Public Service Commission job scam, in which the jobs of all accused officers were terminated by CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Puru accused Chief Minister Pema Khandu of being “incompetent in terminating the accused officers of APPSC and APSSB.”
He also sought inquiry into “all APPSC examinations conducted under APPSC Chairman Nipo Nabam and Deputy Controller Taket Jerang,” stating that similar malpractice might have occurred in the exams held previously by the APPSC.
The committee also demanded “inclusion of fresh/new candidates along with the old ones in the AE (civil) exam to be reconducted by the APPSC,” and to increase the age limit of APPSC aspirants to 40 years.
On 29 August, a case (u/s 120-B/420/406/409) was lodged at the Itanagar police station by a candidate in connection with the leakage of question paper prior to the examination for the posts of AE (civil) conducted by the APPSC on 26 and 27 August.
The police have so far arrested six persons for their involvement in the case.
