Fake Placement: Arrested consultant helped ITER in return for job at SOA

Bhubaneswar: Arrested consultant Manas Ranjan Nayak today stated he offered ‘complimentary’ support to the ITER College authorities in getting campus selection at the educational institution in return for a job offer at the Siksha O’ Anusandhan (SOA) University.

Talking to media persons at a police station here, Manas said, “I have not taken a single paisa for referring the ITER college to different companies and did not play a middleman role.”

When asked how well he knows SOA University Dean (Placement) RK Hota, Manas replied, “I knew him (Hota) only six months before the campus selections at the ITER college.”

He further stated, “The probe into the fake placement case is on and I have full faith on the legal process.”

He denied knowing Delhi-based consultant Rehan, whose name was mentioned in the police complaint filed by the SOA University authorities.

Sources said the Commissionerate Police suspects a high-value deal was made to design the fake campus placements at the engineering college of the SOA University.

It is worth mentioning that Manas was nabbed by the Commissionerate Police from Puri on Friday.

Police Commissioner YB Khurania had earlier stated that a big placement racket was behind the scam and at least 25 people have been identified so far in the matter.

Special teams are on the job to collect more evidence against the accused involved in the job scandal.

The Commissionerate police had arrested the SOA University dean of placement on May 26 following allegations that several students of ITER had fallen victims to the fake placements conducted under his supervision.

The arrest was made following a series of protests by students and parents. The students had subsequently launched agitation forcing the authorities to lodge complaint against the consultancy firm which had conducted the fake recruitment drives in ITER for different companies.