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3 court officials among 13 arrested in Uttarakhand SSSC question paper leak case

The arrested also include a former Class IV employee of Uttarakhand SSSC, a computer programmer, a coaching centre director, a police constable, two employees of a medical university and job aspirants

Updated on: Aug 3, 2022, 17:26:05 IST
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Among the 13 accused arrested so far in the Uttarakhand state subordinate selection commission (UKSSSC) graduate level exam question paper leak case, three were court officials from the Kumaon division, the special task force of the Uttarakhand police said on Wednesday.

Mahendra Chauhan, the 12th accused in the Uttarakhand SSC question paper leak case who was arrested on Monday, was posted as a junior assistant in the CJM Court Nainital. (ANI)
Mahendra Chauhan, the 12th accused in the Uttarakhand SSC question paper leak case who was arrested on Monday, was posted as a junior assistant in the CJM Court Nainital. (ANI)

Manoj Joshi, who was among the first six accused arrested by STF on July 24, was working as a junior clerk at Sitarganj court in Udham Singh Nagar.

Another accused Himanshu Kandpal, who is also the brother-in-law of Manoj, was working as a junior assistant at the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court in Ramnagar of Nainital district. He was arrested by STF on August 2.

Mahendra Chauhan, the 12th accused and a junior assistant of the Nainital CJM court, was arrested on August 1.

Senior superintendent of police (STF) Ajay Singh said these three accused knew each other and planned as a team to leak the question paper to the aspirants.

The arrested include a former Class IV employee of UKSSSC, a computer programmer associated with the Commission through an outsourcing agency, a coaching centre director, a police constable, two employees of a medical university based in Dehradun and job aspirants, he said.

He further said the people, who have been arrested so far, were directly involved in the question paper leak.

According to police, the accused charged 10-12 lakh from candidates for providing them with leaked questions. It has been revealed that of the 13 accused arrested so far, three cleared the graduate-level UKSSSC exam, which was held on December 4 to fill 916 vacancies.

After the intervention of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, a case of fraud was registered in this regard at Raipur police station on the complaint of a UKSSSC official. The Uttarakhand director general of police (DGP) handed over its probe to STF in view of the seriousness of the matter.