Published: [15 October, 2026]
StartupFeed Quick Take
- The ED says Silicon Techlab’s majority shares passed to PSIL International under a deal dated August 5, 2023.
- Investigators searched Silicon Techlab, Panchsoft Technologies and PSIL International on October 9, 10 and 12, seizing records under India’s anti-money-laundering law.
- The three firms sat in the chain that ran Odisha’s cancelled 2024 exam for 933 police sub-inspector posts.
The Enforcement Directorate says the majority stake in Silicon Techlab, Odisha’s 2024 sub-inspector exam vendor, moved to a steel-linked company in 2023.
That buyer was PSIL International Limited, once called Patnaik Steel International, with directors Sameer Rath and his wife Saswati Mishra. The ED is now examining how those shares in Silicon Techlab changed hands, under a deal dated August 5, 2023.
The exam work had passed down a chain. The Odisha Police Recruitment Board gave it to ITI Limited, a central government firm in Kolkata. ITI handed it to Silicon Techlab.
Silicon Techlab then handed key tasks to Panchsoft Technologies, run by Sankar Prusty, the alleged mastermind. The ED says Silicon Techlab’s owner, Suresh Chandra Nayak, gave candidate data to Panchsoft without ITI’s approval, and that money moved between them before the exam.
The case began on September 30, 2025, when Odisha Police stopped three buses near Ichhapuram carrying 114 candidates. The ED says they were promised leaked papers for Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh each. The exam for 933 posts was cancelled.
The CBI took over in November 2025. Its first chargesheet names 16 people, including Prusty and Nayak. Odisha removed Silicon Techlab from its panel of approved vendors in December.
What this means for you: If you run an IT vendor that bids for government or PSU contracts, a quiet change in ownership is now a live risk. File every share transfer with the Registrar of Companies, because the ED is treating hidden deals as evidence.
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