Tauru paper ‘leak’ row: Kingpin, aide arrested

Two men arrested for allegedly selling leaked question papers to 40 doctors for lakhs of rupees. However, the papers were fake and made from previous years' samples. The doctors were later assaulted and robbed by impersonators, who were members of a rival gang. The suspects had a history of leaking and selling papers.

The two men who had gathered 40 doctors at a farmhouse in Tauru on Thursday for an allegedly leaked question paper of the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) were arrested on Saturday, police officers aware of the matter said.

The farmhouse at Hasanpur village, near Tauru in Haryana’s Nuh district. (HT Photo)

The suspects’ questioning, however, revealed a twist to the case — the so-called leaked question paper that the suspects had sold to the doctors for lakhs of rupees was fake and made from FMGE sample papers of the last five years, they added.

FMGE is a test for those who have completed their medical degree from an institute in a foreign country and wish to practise in India. The two suspects, Vinay Dahiya and Rakesh Bhandari, run a consultancy institute in Delhi, and brought 40 doctors to a private farmhouse at Hasanpur village, near Tauru in Haryana’s Nuh district, to sell them an allegedly leaked FMGE question paper for ₹20 lakh. They took between ₹4lakh and ₹6lakh from the dcotors as advance, with the rest to be paid after the exam.

However, the farmhouse was later raided by seven men impersonating police officers. They pointed guns at the assembled doctors and claimed that they were Haryana Police crime branch officers who were acting on news of the paper leak. The impersonators assaulted the doctors and robbed them of their cash and valuables. Hpwever, the farmhouse owner called the police control room, and within minutes, a police team arrived on teh scene and arrested the impersonators, who were members of a rival gang upset that they were not cut into the deal involving the alleged leaked paper.

On Friday night, the police arrested Dahiya from Rohini’s Sector 3 and Bhandari on Saturday morning from Vasant Kunj. They were produced before a Nuh court and taken on four-day remand, said investigators.

“During the investigation, we learned that the two had planned to cheat the students after promising them the leaked paper. They told us they had prepared a paper of 1,250 questions from sample papers of the last five years and had sold that to the students,” said Mukesh Kumar, deputy superintendent of police of Tauru.

Investigators said they suspect that Dahiya conspired with the rival gang which assaulted and robbed the doctors on Thursday. “There is a possibility that he had shared the farmhouse’s location with the rival gang or had sent the location to them with the help of a doctor. Dahiya was earlier arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in March 2023 for leaking the 2021 JEE Mains examination paper. There are already three cases registered against him for leaking papers and selling them” said Kumar.

Meanwhile, the 40 doctors who were in the farmhouse on Thursday took the FMGE in Delhi on Saturday, said DSP Kumar.