Bhubaneswar, Nov 2: In a significant lead to the cop, in the high-profile job fraud namely the SI Scam probe, alleged mastermind Shankar Prusti is now in the custody.

He is now under the lock & key of Odisha Crime Branch at Cuttack, for interrogation.

According to the Crime Branch team, probing the case, Prusti will be remanded to judicial custody by the evening after due interrogation.Meanwhile, the mastermind’s protective response has put the sleuths in trouble. Accused Prusti pleaded himself as innocent ignoring any deal relating the SI recruitment kickback.

While asked by the pressers regarding his connivance in the SI recruitment scam, Prusti said that he is having no link with the fraudsters of the SI recruitment. He also said that, he does not even know them who are now in judicial custody in connection with the recruitment fraud.

According to the Crime Branch sources, Prusti was brought to Bhubaneswar in the morning, who was later escorted to the Crime Branch office Cuttack for interrogation.

Parida was apprehended by the Odisha Crime Branch from the India-Nepal border near Uttarakhand late at night on Friday, while he was about to flee abroad.

Worth mentioning, Shankar Parida is suspected as the brain behind the high profile job fraud.He allegedly planned to drill the answers of the SI Exam questionpapers at Hyderabad and Digha in West Bengal among hundreds of aspirants, for huge sum approx Rs 25L from each aspirant. However, his bid ultimately failed and came to the limelight after as many as 114 candidates were picked from a bus while leaving for Hyderabad near Andhra-Odisha border for the answer keys.