Assam SP gets death threats over cash-for-job scam probe

Guwahati, Feb 16 (IANS) A senior police officer investigating the multi-crore-rupee cash-for-jobs scam of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) has received death threats from unknown persons.

Additional Superintendent of Police of Dibrugarh district Surjit Singh Panesar has received two phone calls in the last few days and SMSs threatening to eliminate him if he does not stop investigation into the scam.

Panesar is the Investigating Officer of the cash-for-jobs scam of the APSC that rocked the state in October last year.

While probing a bribery case in Dibrugarh district, Panesar had arrested a government servant in October last year who had allegedly accepted cash from a dentist assuring her a government job through the APSC.

A detailed probe into the allegations of bribery in the APSC has led to arrest of APSC Chairman Rakesh Paul, two other members of the Commission and several other officials of the Commission.

"Panesar has filed an FIR in Dibrugarh police station alleging that he received calls from a mobile phone and SMSs asking him to stop the investigation and threatening to kill him. A case has been registered and we are probing the matter," said a senior official of the Dibrugarh police station.

The official said that the SIM card of the phone number used to threaten Panesar seems to have been issued in Meghalaya.

The first call came on February 10 -- the day when Panesar summoned a former minister of the erstwhile Congress government in Assam for his alleged involvement in the cash-for-jobs scam of the APSC.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)