New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs has appointed an Assam Police officer on deputation at the National Investigating Agency after she had been named by a judicial commission in a high-profile corruption case.
The officer, Rumi Timungpi, was grilled by the one-man judicial commission led by retired judge Justice Biplab Sarma for about four hours in July 2021. Her interrogation was based on her written reply sought by the commission. She was then serving as deputy superintendent of police at the special branch of Assam Police.
Well-known as the ‘APSC scam’ in Assam, the multi-crore corruption case was the first big stab at the former Congress regime by the first BJP-led government by Sarbananda Sonowal in 2016. The state police, led by Sonowal as the home minister, had arrested not just the chairman of the Commission, Rakesh Paul, but also 21 officers who had entered the state administration through the APSC route in 2013.
The charge against those serving officers was that they had bribed some members of the Commission even after failing to clear the qualifying examination. Timungpi was one of the 21 officers named by the Commission appointed by the Sonowal government. The ruling BJP had gone hammer and tongs at the Tarun Gogoi-led regime for indulging in corruption.
According to Pratidin Time, “The report by Justice Sarma Commission brought to light the explosive fact that Timungpi failed to even clear the APSC examination”. She has since contested the claim.
Even as the case is going on at a special court in Guwahati, the MHA appointed her on June 15 as additional Superintendent of Police at the NIA “on deputation basis for three years.” The appointment has come through after a clearance given by the state home department. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is also the state home minister.
An Assam government notification this August 11 stated that she had been released from duty by Assam Police to take up the new assignment at the NIA.
“Meanwhile, questions are being raised on how a controversial cop has been assigned an important position in a central agency like NIA,” wrote the Assam Tribune.
This March, then APSC chairman Paul was released on bail after over six years in jail.
The officer, Rimunpi, has so far not spoken publicly about her latest assignment at the NIA. The Wire has not been able to contact her.