Conditional bail granted to 114 arrested in Odisha police SI recruitment scam

Berhampur: A special vigilance court here on Wednesday granted conditional bail to 114 aspirants, who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the police SI recruitment examination scam case.“Special vigilance judge Gynendra Kumar Barik allowed bail to the 114 accused on a bond of Rs 50,000 along with two sureties for each,” said Rajat Kumar Das, additional public prosecutor. “They were asked to cooperate with investigating agencies during the investigation as and when required,” he said.“The court, however, denied bail to another seven accused, mostly middlemen who helped collect money and facilitated the scam,” he added.State govt had recommended to hand over investigation of the case to CBI on Oct 22. As many as 123 people, including 114 aspirants, were arrested on charges of cheating, forgery and fraud in the recruitment exam scheduled for Oct 5 and 6, which was postponed.Initially, Berhampur police arrested 117 people, including three agents, while they were going towards Andhra Pradesh in three AC buses, a day after the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) announced postponement of the examination on Sept 30. Another six were arrested by the crime branch, after it took over investigation of the case.Police had said the aspirants planned to get question papers in Andhra’s Vizianagaram and come back to Bhubaneswar to appear for the exam. For this purpose, the candidates had agreed to pay Rs 25 lakh each, with Rs 10 lakh initially, and Rs 15 lakh once the job is confirmed, police had said.Around 1.53 lakh candidates had applied for 933 SI posts. The exam was earlier scheduled to be held on March 8 and 9.