Cuttack: In a major breakthrough in the investigation into irregularities in the Assistant Section Officer (ASO) Examination-2024 of the Orissa High Court, the Lalbag Police Station team under the Cuttack Urban Police District has arrested six persons for their alleged involvement in leakage of model answers and use of unfair means.
The case was registered following a complaint over serious discrepancies noticed in the outsourced conduct of the examination by a private agency. During examination of the answer scripts, investigators detected verbatim reproduction of model answers and abnormally high marks secured by certain candidates, which appeared inconsistent with the overall difficulty level of the question papers.
Subsequent technical investigation, including analysis of phone records, revealed suspicious communication links among officials of the outsourcing agency, middlemen and candidates. Based on documentary, digital and technical evidence gathered during the probe, police apprehended six accused persons and are producing them before the Court.
Police have also found prima facie involvement of five additional accused who are already in judicial custody in connection with irregularities in the Sub-Inspector and Special OTET examinations. These individuals will be remanded in the present case during the course of the ongoing investigation.
According to the police, the acts committed by the accused constitute a large-scale organised crime and criminal conspiracy aimed at manipulating a high-profile recruitment examination of the Orissa High Court.
Those arrested have been identified as Himansu Sekhar Dash of Shakti Vihar under Mancheswar police station in Bhubaneswar, Sridhara Mantri of Dual Height Apartment at Nandan Vihar under Infocity police station, Alok Sahoo of Dumduma under Khandagiri police station, Nirmalaya Kumar Das of Manikham in Motiganja under Town police station in Balasore, Gangadhara Jena of Nistipur village under Banki police station in Cuttack district, and Joytirmayee Sahoo of Brahmanchai village under Hinjili police station in Ganjam district.
The accused have been booked under Sections 318(4), 316(2), 316(5), 111, 61(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Further investigation is in progress to trace the financial trail, identify other persons involved and uncover the wider conspiracy behind the examination scam, police said.
