Guwahati, Oct 1: In a key development in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) cash-for-job scam, the Court of Special Judges in Guwahati has granted bail to 10 gazetted officers who were not named in the final charge sheet submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The officers were released on bail after submitting a surety of Rs. 30,000 and are required to reappear in court on November 8.
The officers who secured bail include Nabanita Sharma, Aseema Kalita, Amitraj Choudhury, Tridip Roy, Bikram Aditya Bora, Nandita Hazarika, Kulapradip Bhattacharyya, Nitumoni Das, Gittartha Baruah, and Mridul Hazarika.
Their legal counsel stated that since the details were already mentioned in the cognisance notice, the officers chose not to challenge it. "They are at the trial stage, and the court observed that custodial interrogation is unnecessary," said the counsel.
Meanwhile, seven charge-sheeted individuals were directed to appear in court on Tuesday. However, they submitted petitions to defer their appearance.
This group includes Rituraj Doley, Nilanjan Gogoi, Dipankar Dutta Lahkar, Nandini Kakati, Dhiraj Kumar Jain, Swarup Bhattacharya, and Bikash Sarma.
Earlier, the Special Court took suo moto cognisance of the 10 officers who were left out of the SIT’s final charge sheet. The court also accepted the charge sheet against 23 gazetted officers implicated in the APSC scam.
Notably, the SIT did not include 14 officers named in the Biplab Kumar Sharma Commission’s report on the APSC examination scam. The court, however, took suo moto cognisance of nine out of these 14 accused.
