APSC cash-for-job scam: Kingpin Rakesh Paul owns property more than Rs 150 crore
চাকরির সওদাগর রাকেশ পালের সম্পত্তি দেড়শো কোটি ছাড়িয়ে

May 1: Another new fact about Rakesh Paul, the kingpin of Assam Public Service Commission’s multi-crore cash-for-job scam has come to surface. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the cash-for-job scam, has found that Paul brought 22 properties worth more than Rs 150 crores. In its inquiry report submitted in the court, the investigating agency mentioned that Paul owned prime properties, including flats, bungalows and residential in Kolkata, Guwahati, Tura and few other cities in India.

The prime properties bought by Paul after taking over as the chairman of APSC were also registered in the name of his close relatives. In this connection, the CBI is keen to interrogate Rakesh Paul’s wife Sunanda and brother Rajib to unearth more details about the cash-for-job case. Apart from investing in properties, CBI officials are of the opinion that Paul must have stacked a huge amount of cash, which he had amassed by “selling” the jobs, with some of his close associates or relatives. It was alleged that Rakesh Paul used to take Rs 20 to 35 lakh for each job.

Meanwhile, his bail petition was also rejected by the Supreme Court last year. Regarding the unaccounted property, the CBI will now seek permission from the Gauhati High Court to register an FIR against him to further investigate the matter. Rakesh Paul was earlier appointed an APSC member and subsequently the commission’s chairman under the previous Congress government, and was arrested on November 4, 2016, after a doctor, Angshumita Gogoi, alleged that she had to pay him Rs 10 lakh to get the post.