Guwahati, November 26 (IANS): The Assam government has suspended the arrested chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) Rakesh Paul for his involvement in a multi-crore cash-for-jobs scam, an official said on Saturday. The Raj Bhavan here on Friday also sought a direction from President Mukherjee seeking to remove the tainted chairman. A special police team from the state's Dibrugarh district probing the alleged involvement of the APSC chairman and some of his associates in the cash-for-jobs scam, had arrested Paul, APSC member Samedur Rahman, his personal security officer, and APSC's assistant controller of examinations, Pabitra Kaibarta earlier this year and questioned them. After expiry of their police custody, the court here had sent Paul and Rahman to judicial custody while the others are in police custody. On November 9 this year, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal convened a cabinet meeting and the cabinet unanimously decided to move a proposal to the Assam Governor seeking to suspend the APSC chairman. "We received the nod of the Governor to suspend Paul and the government has issued the suspension letter of Paul. The Assam Governor had already written to the President of India seeking his direction in removing Paul from his position," said an official of the prsonnel department of the Assam government while adding that Paul will remain suspended till further instructions from the President of India. There had been allegations that Paul and some of his trusted members and staff of the APSC took huge amounts of money for selecting candidates for the Assam civil service examination and other officials for different departments of the state.
