A candidate for a recruitment exam in Assam has alleged that a woman constable “touched her private parts” during frisking outside the examination hall.

The incident, said to have happened during the exams to Grade 3 posts on Sunday in Nalbari, has prompted the state government to plan a standard operating procedure (SOP) for frisking of women candidates.

The woman made the claims in a social media post.

The SOP will be introduced before the next round of Assam Direct Recruitment Exam (ADRE), chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Monday.

According to the ADRE schedule, the next Grade 4 exam will be held on
September 27 and Grade 3 on September 29.

Allegations of inappropriate frisking of women candidates for the Grade 3 exam surfaced hours after the exam ended on Sunday afternoon. The issue gained traction on social media after Sarma had taken to X to thank government personnel for having “successfully completed this monumental task (exam)....”

Posting on X on Monday morning, Sarma said he instructed Assam police chief G.P. Singh to “investigate the (Nalbari) incident where a girl student has alleged that a lady constable searched her private parts before she entered the examination hall” and to “develop a proper SOP”.

“For me, the dignity and respect of our mothers and sisters are of utmost
importance and non-negotiable,” Sarma said.

The proposed SOP should be developed “taking into account the relevant judgments from the Hon’ble Courts and guidelines from the Women’s Commission regarding the conduct of searches involving women, and this must be circulated before the next round of examinations,” Sarma said.

On X, Sarma added that he was informed by DGP Singh “about another incident in North Lakhimpur, “where cheating material was recovered from the inner
garment of a girl student on the same day”.

Sarma said the administration must conduct the ADRE with the “highest level of integrity and transparency” and at the same time “ensure the decency and dignity of our female candidates are upheld at all times”.

The police chief later said the “range DIG, herself a woman, has proceeded to conduct an inquiry” into the Nalbari incident. “We will work with examination conducting authority, recruitment commission and government to come up with SOP,” he said, adding 397 women
candidates were frisked between 8.30am and 10.30am at the Nalbari centre.

An X user, responding to the examinee’s allegation, requested the administration not to “treat candidates as criminals”.