Guwahati: Nineteen state government officials, including eight women, have been arrested by police in connection to the cash-for-job scam that rocked Assam in 2016.


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Among those arrested in Pallavi Sharma, daughter of the BJP MP from Tezpur, RP Sharma. 


The 19 persons were arrested after their handwriting failed to match the handwriting in her answer sheet. 


Earlier, police had filed charge sheet against former Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul and few other members in connection with the case.


Candidates would reportedly pay anything between Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh to Paul to replace their original answer sheets with fake ones.


"So far 63 officers have been arrested in the case. Today, we have arrested 19 officers, out of which eight are women,” said Additional Superintendent of Police of Dibrugarh Police, Surajeet Singh Panesar told ANI.


"Police had earlier identified 25 officers of the 2015 batch who had bribed APSC officials to get jobs through doctored answer scripts. Out of those 25 officials, 13 were in Assam Civil Services, seven in Assam Police Services and the rest are in allied civil services. On November 8, police arrested 16 civil services officials in this regard. Former APSC chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul was arrested on November 4 last year after the arrest of its two members -- Samedur Rahman and Basanta Kumar Doley,” he added.


All the 19 persons have been remanded to 11 days police custody.


With agency inputs