The mastermind of the Odisha police sub-inspector (SI) recruitment scam, Sankar Prusty, has been arrested from Uttarakhand near the Nepal border.

The Odisha crime branch said in a release on Sunday: “A team under the leadership of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Anila Anand of CID-CB was continuously following him. He was frequently changing his location. Finally, he was traced down by the team and arrested near the Nepal border in the state of Uttarakhand. He was produced in a local court and is being brought to Odisha on transit remand.”

The release stated: “Sankar Prusty, director, Panchsoft Technologies Pvt Ltd at Patia, Bhubaneswar, orchestrated the crime along with his other associates, namely Muna Mohanty, Srikanta Maharana alias Rinku, Arabinda Das, T. Abhimanyu Dora and Priyadarsini Samal.”

After landing in Bhubaneswar, Prusty denied any link with the recruitment scam or that he had been hiding to evade arrest. “I was not hiding. I was exploring legal recourse. I had applied for anticipatory bail from the high court. No case has been filed against my wife. All allegations against me are false. I have faith in the judiciary. I have no connection with any of the other accused,” said Prusty.

He also maintained that he would expose those who conspired to cancel the examination.

As per the investigation, ITI Limited, a central PSU, was tasked with organising the examination under the aegis of the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB). The PSU had sub-contracted the job to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab, which in turn assigned some key tasks to Panchsoft Technologies headed by Prusty. It was here that Prusty allegedly carried out the manipulation.

The multi-crore job recruitment scam surfaced after police intercepted three buses heading to Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh and detained 114 candidates who were set to appear for the examination scheduled on October 5 and 6. The buses were stopped on September 29.

Investigations revealed that the candidates were to be given question papers for practice ahead of the examination. After the practice session, they would be brought to the examination centre to appear for the test. Each candidate had allegedly paid between ₹20 lakh and ₹25 lakh. The accused had also collected the candidates’ original certificates. Police arrested 123 people, including the 114 candidates. Two days ago, a court granted bail to all the candidates, while Prusty remained absconding.

On October 22, the Odisha government announced that the probe into the recruitment scam would be handed over to the CBI.

The Chief Minister’s Office said in a release: “The gang that ran the racket had a network that spread beyond Odisha to Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. It is suspected that an organised gang is involved in the crime. To completely root out the corruption involved in it and to arrest those involved in the scam, the chief minister (Mohan Charan Majhi) has decided to hand over the probe to the CBI.”