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Bhubaneswar, Oct 17 (IANS) The Crime Branch of Odisha Police has arrested four people, including one of the main accused in the multi-crore sub-inspector (SI) police recruitment scam, Crime Branch Director General of Police Vinaytosh Mishra said on Friday.
The accused were identified as Muna Mohanty (32) of Baideswar in Cuttack district; Priyadarshini Samal (25) of Mukundpur in Dhenkanal district; and Srikant Maharana (34) and T. Abimanyu Dora (49) of Daspalla in Nayagarh district.
Crime branch sources said the police, while investigating the possible leak of question papers for the recruitment of Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE)-2024 conducted by the Odisha Police Recruitment Board, discovered that the main accused Muna Mohanty was running a crime syndicate with the help of other associates under the aegis of the main accused Shankar Prusty, Director of Punchsoft Technologies Pvt Ltd, which is based in Patiya, Bhubaneswar. Destroy the entire SI recruitment exam process by adopting unfair means.
Mohanty, along with his agents, actively monitored the entire crime syndicate, ensuring contact with interested candidates, collecting original certificates and blank checks in exchange for providing question papers for the examination and returning the same after the deal amount of Rs 20 to 25 lakh was paid.
The scam came to light on the night of September 29 after Berhampur police in neighboring Andhra Pradesh stopped three buses carrying 114 candidates and three agents.
During verification, the police found that accused Shrikant and Muna had planned the entire criminal incident.
Srikanth organized the candidates, arranging buses for their transportation to Vizianagaram before their departure from Bhubaneswar, which also included accommodation and collection of certificates.
Apart from this, he had also planned to flee the process of law and took shelter in the farmhouse of his syndicate member T. Abhimanyu Dora of Daspalla along with Muna Mohanty.
Meanwhile, on September 27, Muna booked buses carrying candidates from Bhubaneswar and paid Rs 2,30,000 from his bank account and his mother’s account.
He also physically supervised the boarding of students in Bhubaneswar on September 29.
Muna Mohanty also deployed three of his agents in the said buses to keep an eye on the movements of the candidates till Vizianagaram, in which he himself went to Vizianagaram to book accommodation and shared the space.
As soon as the candidates and three agents were arrested after the interception, Muna, Srikanth and others went into hiding after switching off their mobile phones.
After this, the accused also returned the certificates to the parents of the accused candidates through accused Priyadarshini.
The police also arrested Dora for providing safe harbor to the accused persons despite knowing their involvement in the crime.
However, Crime Branch Director General of Police Mishra said that the main accused Prasti, who was in Delhi during the arrest of 114 candidates and agents, is still absconding and efforts are on to arrest him.
–IANS
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