Silchar, Aug 21 (IANS): The principal of Cachar college in Assam's Silchar town was arrested on Sunday over allegations of gross negligence and violation in carrying out his duties during the recruitment drive by the state government to appoint 30,000 workforce in various departments.

Siddhartha Sankar Nath, the principal of Cachar College was arrested by the police after an FIR was lodged against him by the Deputy Commissioner's office.

Among three districts in Barak valley, only Cachar has the examination centers for the Grade III and IV recruitment examination. Nearly 14 lakh candidates appeared in the examination.

Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, Rohan Jha told IANS: "Cachar College is situated at a very tactical position in the city. Around 8 a.m. in the morning, when a good number of candidates reached, there was no one in the examination centre. The candidates were about to launch an agitation when we reached the college."

Jha said that all directives of the government to conduct the recruitment examination were violated in the Cachar College.

He further said that Nath broke all the protocols and did not even cooperate with the government officials. "The principal was not answering all phone calls of the officers."

Following that, an FIR was lodged against him by the Deputy Commissioner and he was arrested by the police.

"The person has done similar offence earlier also," Jha added.

Cachar Superintendent of Police, Ramandeep Kaur said: "Apart from today's incident there were other allegations against Nath. We are investigating everything."

However, when asked about other allegations, Kaur refused to divulge further details about it.