Balasore/Berhampur: The Crime Branch has made another arrest in its ongoing probe into the police Sub-Inspector (SI) recruitment examination scam, apprehending one more accused from Balasore district.
The accused, identified as Chandan Mallick from Ransahi Panchayat, was arrested late last night.
According to Crime Branch sources, Chandan had introduced himself as a social worker and was actively involved in various local activities.
The Crime Branch will produce Chandan before the Berhampur JMFC Rural Court today. With his arrest, the total number of individuals held in connection with the scam has now risen to 120.
A day earlier, the Crime Branch had arrested Arvind Das from Nabara village under Singla police station limits in Balasore. Initially, a raid was conducted at Arvind’s ancestral house in Nabara by Basta Police, but he was later traced and apprehended from Rajpur village in Jaleswar.
Investigators are probing whether Arvind directly collected money from candidates or acted as an intermediary arranging aspirants for brokers. Following his arrest, Arvind was produced before the Berhampur JMFC Court, where his bail plea was rejected, and he was remanded to judicial custody. Officials also seized certain objectionable documents from his possession.
Earlier, the Crime Branch had arrested Biswaranjan Behera from the Barang police station area in Bhubaneswar, taking the tally of arrests to 119 before Chandan’s detention.
Meanwhile, interrogation of Guptaranjan Nayak, a resident near the Polsara Post Office, is also underway. Guptaranjan, who operated a computer institute in Shandha Sahi–Shriramnagar, is suspected to have facilitated a center for the police SI examination there.
The Crime Branch continues to dig deeper into the widespread network of the recruitment scam, which has exposed serious irregularities and fraudulent practices in the selection process.
