Call it a coincidence. Utkal Ranjan Sahoo, who is the chairman of RPSC, was Director General of Police in March 2024 when ACB had raided residence of Sangeeta Arya, who resigned from RPSC member yesterday.
Not only this, Hemant Priyadarshy, who is now member of RPSC, was the chief of ACB when it conducted raid at the residence of Sangeeta Arya while investigating the paper leak and money trail in the Executive Officer/ Revenue Officer examination.
What is the case?
Sangeeta Arya was under the scanner of ACB for quite some time. She has been probed and her official residence was raided in past connection with the ongoing investigation of the Executive Officer (EO) recruitment exam bribery case.
Recently, on Nov 10, the ACB again summoned Arya, but she sought 15 days to appear, citing her involvement in ongoing interviews at RPSC.
The Background
The Sikar ACB had received a complaint for two candidates regarding Gopal Keshawat demanding bribe against their final selection in EO examination in July 2023.
The bribe was demanded through an agent Anil Kumar who sought Rs 40 lakh each for selection. As per the deal, Rs 25 lakh was to be given in advance and remaining Rs 15 after selection. Later the deal was said to be closed at Rs 25 lakh.
The ACB had testified the case and then laid trap to catch agents Anil Kumar and Brahm Prakash taking bribe of Rs 18.50 lakh. The victim through another agent Ravindra Sharma send Rs 7.50 lakh to Gopal Keshawat at his residence in Pratap Nagar. The ACB caught them red handed and during prove, names of RPSC members Sangeeta Arya and Manju Sharma was mentioned.
Since then ACB had been probing Arya and Manju Sharma on different occasions. While Manju Sharma had resigned two months back, Arya too decided to quit.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
