Crime Branch seeks court’s nod for narco test for job scam accused Pooja

Panaji: Politicians and bureaucrats may need to worry if they are involved in the alleged cash-for-job scam, as the crime branch of Goa police moved an application before the court to conduct a narco-analysis test on Pooja Naik, an accused in the job scam.She had publicly made allegations against ministers, PWD officials and an IAS officer. Naik told the crime branch and gave her consent to conduct a narco-analysis test on her to bring out the facts in the job scam.The crime branch moved an application for a narco test so that they could get hidden information to take the job scam case to a logical conclusion. The crime branch sought permission from the court to take Naik to the directorate of forensic science in Gujarat to conduct a narco-analysis test.“We have moved an application to conduct a narco-analysis test of Naik in connection with the case registered at Mardol police station, which is now transferred to the Crime Branch after consent from Naik to conduct her narco analysis test,” crime branch SP Rahul Gupta said.Last month, Goa police’s crime branch completed its investigation into the allegations by Naik and found no evidence.Naik alleged a scam involving payment of Rs 17.6 crore to senior govt officials in exchange for govt jobs.

She alleged that she had worked in the MGP office in St Inez in 2012, where she was introduced by minister Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar to govt officials concerned.The SP said that the inquiry conclusively revealed that she never worked at the MGP office, as confirmed by all officials and staff working in the office at the time.Naik allegedly maintained a diary with the names of 613 job aspirants and the amounts collected, and claimed it was handed over to a friend.

However, during physical verification of the addresses of the friend mentioned, she was unable to identify any such person or house. “Inquiry revealed no such diary existed, and no person named was associated with her. After cross-questioning, Naik now accepts that she does not know any such person personally,” said Gupta.Naik also alleged that she was promised Rs 30,000 per candidate as commission. She claimed that she received Rs 20 lakh in total as commission.“No evidence was found of any transfer of funds to the named officials. When asked about such a high amount of transactions, she said that she used to take her own commission from candidates and also that her husband used to sell fish for a living,” the SP said.