4 more arrested in Odisha Police recruitment irregularities, hunt on for mastermind

Four more people were arrested on Friday in connection with the alleged irregularities in the police recruitment examination in Odisha, officials said.

The examination for the recruitment of sub-inspectors was scheduled to be held on October 5 and 6, but it was postponed after the alleged irregularities were detected, they said.

Those arrested were identified as Munna Mohanty, Abhimanyu Dora, Srikant Maharana and Soumya Priyadarshini Samant. They were arrested from the Daspalla area in Nayagarh district, police said. The irregularities were detected after 114 candidates and three suspected brokers were nabbed on the night of September 29 at the state's border with Andhra Pradesh when they were going to a ''special coaching'' centre in Vijayanagaram from Bhubaneswar.

Later, another two suspected brokers, including one Arabinda Das, were arrested.

These candidates had already paid Rs 10 lakh each to the racket, and were supposed to pay another Rs 25 lakh after securing the job, police said.

With the latest arrests, the total number of people who have been nabbed rose to 123, they said.

DGP (Crime Branch) Vinaytosh Mishra said Munna Mohanty and Arabinda Das were close associates of Shankar Prusty, the mastermind who is yet to be arrested.

''Both Munna and Arabinda were directly reporting to Prusty, who was running the racket from Delhi,'' he said.

''Another 110 candidates were supposed to get similar 'coaching' in West Bengal's Digha, which is located on the Odisha border. A total of 110 hotel rooms were booked in Digha for the candidates. They were supposed to gather there on September 30. However, due to the police action in Berhampur, the program was cancelled,'' he said.

Mishra alleged that Munna was looking after the Vijayanagaram module, while Arabinda was making arrangements for the Digha module.

''Munna had arranged a bus for the candidate to travel to Vijayanagaram. He transported some of the candidates in his car to the bus,'' he said.

The car and the two buses have been seized, Mishra said.

On the other hand, Soumya Priyadarshini was in touch with the candidates and their parents, he claimed.

''She had collected blank cheques, certificates and other documents from the candidates,'' he said.

Mishra said Abhimanyu Dora, a native of the Daspalla area, helped the accused persons in hiding and destroying evidence against them.

The officer said efforts are being made to arrest the others involved in the crime.

''A total of 110 mobile phones have been seized, and forensic examinations of the phones will be conducted to gather more details about the racket. It will take two to three months to recover the data,'' he stated.