Gauhati High Court on Thursday granted bail to nine Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and allied services officials, who were arrested by Dibrugarh police in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).

ACS officer Badrul Islam Choudhury, Dipak Khanikar, Sudipta Goswami Bhattacharjee, Geetali Doley, Kunal Das and Rumi Saikia, APS officers Sabbira Imran and Dilip Kumar Kalita, and allied services official Sunayana Aidew were granted bail by a bench of Justice Rumi Kumari Phukan, nearly 11 months after their arrest.

They were arrested in November 2017 on charges of securing their jobs by bribing or influencing the then APSC chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul and his associates.

The petitioners’ counsel Angshuman Bora cited delay in starting the trial, long period of detention and the lack of any material, except forensic reports, against them while pleading for their bail.

The court, however, imposed certain bail conditions. It said they shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him to disclose such facts to the court or to any other authority. They will also have to surrender their passports.

They will not leave the territorial limits of Guwahati without the written permission of the trial court and without informing the investigating authority. They will also report at the trial court and before the investigating officer once a month till the investigation is completed, the court said.

The bench added that they would cooperate with the investigation and will be always available for questioning by the investigating agency.

The high court also gave liberty to the trial court to add any other condition it may consider to be appropriate. It made it clear that any breach or non-compliance of the bail conditions will be viewed very seriously and would entail immediate cancellation of the bail.