Gourav’s silence over receiving gifts from APSC scam accused hints at corruption : Himanta

way2barak, Mar 4: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday claimed that Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi’s silence over “receiving wedding gifts” from the prime accused of the ‘cash-for-job’ scam in state civil services recruitment has made it a “prima facie case of corruption”.

    During a discussion on the one-man Justice (retd) B K Sharma Commission report in the Assam Assembly, Sarma also asserted that the state government will move the Supreme Court to vacate the Gauhati High Court’s stay on suspension of a few officers, who were the alleged beneficiaries of the scam.

“The report stated that Rakesh Kumar Paul (prime accused) had gifted jewellery to the son of former CM Tarun Gogoi during his wedding. Prima facie it is a case of corruption unless denied.

“Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi has not denied yet. So, we can consider it a case of corruption,” Sarma told the House, which witnessed an uproarious situation, including the suspension of opposition MLA Abul Kalam Rasheed Alam.

According to the statement of one witness in the report, Paul had gifted expensive jewellery to Gaurav Gogoi at his wedding ceremony.

“The Congress party has set a rule on how to indulge in corruption. The Assam Congress must tender a public apology for the injustice meted out to the youths by Rakesh Paul. Such injustice never happened to youths since Independence. This was the highest level of crime,” the CM asserted.

Being a “prince”, Gaurav Gogoi thinks that he is above the law, and that is why he has made no statement yet on the allegations, he said.

Sarma also highlighted at length about the fact that the alleged role of Tarun Gogoi in appointing Paul first as a member and later as chairman of the APSC, has come under scrutiny in the report.

The reports of the commission, which probed anomalies in the conduct of the Assam Public Service Commission’s (APSC) Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) in 2013 and 2014, were laid in the assembly on February 17.

A division bench of the Gauhati High Court last month dismissed a writ appeal filed by the state government against an order of a single-judge bench, which had stayed the suspension of an accused on the basis of the Sharma Commission report.

Referring to this, Sarma said: “I am not in agreement with the HC judgement. It should have called the chief secretary before passing the order. What was the hurry in the case that the court gave five dates in two months for submission of a government affidavit.”

Earlier, Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi raised the issue of the Assam government failing to submit an affidavit in favour of its decision to suspend a group of tainted officials.

“We have now submitted the affidavit after tabling the report in the assembly. We will go up to the Supreme Court and won’t leave any stone unturned. We will appeal against the reinstatement of the officers. To punish the APSC scamsters is not the duty of the assembly and executive alone, but also the duty of the judiciary,” Sarma said.

For registering the FIR for the first time against a possible scam in APSC, he said the House should collectively express gratitude to the then CM Sarbananda Sonowal.

“For the first time in the contemporary history of India, the chairman of a public service commission and all its members were arrested. We took a decision for exemplary action and tried to cleanse the system. Today, all recruitments in APSC are taking place in a clean and transparent manner,” asserted Sarma.

During the tenure of the BJP government, meritorious students are getting jobs through APSC as opposed to ministers’ kin during the Congress rule, he claimed.

“From APSC to Grade IV, we have brought transparency in all levels of government recruitment in Assam. Gradually, people’s faith has returned. The biggest achievement is that the students feel there cannot be any corruption in the job process,” the CM stressed.

During the discussion, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia said the entire two batches of 2013 and 2014 should be terminated as per suggestions of the report, but Sarma disagreed and said some of them got jobs on merit.

Akhil Gogoi said a total of 631 youths were recruited by the APSC in 2013 and 2014 in various services. This includes 241 in 2013 and 180 in 2014 in Assam Civil Services (ACS) and Assam Police Services (APS), along with 210 in other allied services.

“Out of them, 43 from the 2013 batch and 22 from 2014 were arrested. The government suspended 19 officers of the 2013 batch, but the Gauhati High Court stayed it. It seems even the probe was also a scam. As per the report’s suggestions, a CBI inquiry should be initiated,” he said.

Initiating the entire discussion on the contentious issue, BJP MLA Manab Deka said the report is not against one individual, but the entire system created by Tarun Gogoi, allowing the “rampant cash-for-job scam” to continue unabated.

“Tarun Gogoi created this system and Congress must take responsibility. The hopes and aspirations of a complete generation were destroyed. Even female candidates were sexually exploited… Names of present BJP members have also featured in the report,” he added.