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Arrested 55 including mastermind in RPSC paper leak: Udaipur Police
Udaipur SP Vikas Sharma said the accused have been taken on remand to question them about the RPSC paper leak. “It is a big racket,” he said
JAIPUR: The Udaipur police on Monday said that 55 people including the mastermind allegedly involved in the paper leak of second grade teacher recruitment examination have been arrested. The assertion came amid mounting pressure from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party which demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the case.
On Saturday, the police arrested 44 people including 37 students with question papers of second grade teacher recruitment exam, which was organised by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission. The paper was later cancelled by the government.
Udaipur superintendent of police (SP) Vikas Sharma said 55 people have been arrested and two cases have been registered in connection with the paper leak. “It’s a big racket. The accused were charging huge amount of money from unemployed applicants for illegally obtaining the paper and getting them solved,” he said.
“The process of ascertaining the movable and immovable property of the arrested counterfeiters is going on. All the accused have been taken on police remand,” said Sharma.
Sharma said the arrests were made after the police received a tip on Friday that a gang has illegally obtained examination papers and was charging lakhs of rupees from the examinees.
It was learnt that the gang would take the candidates in a bus before the examination, and after receiving the paper in the bus, some subject experts on the bus would solve the paper before the candidates were dropped at Udaipur. On Saturday morning, the bus was stopped outside Bakaria police station and checked.
Sharma said at that time, the headmaster of a government school in Jalore, Suresh Kumar (31) was found in the bus, who allegedly provided the copy of paper to the examinees and was also getting the question papers solved. He was assisted by Bhajan Lal (22), a MBBS third-year student and Raita Ram (28), who is also a government teacher posted in Jalore.
BJP Rajya Sabha member Kirodi Lal Meena said he demanded a CBI probe into irregularities in 2018 and 2021 Rajasthan Administration Services (RAS) examination too but the government hadn’t relented. “The role of the secrecy cell in the RPSC is under suspicion,” he said.
The RLP staged a demonstration at district headquarters demanding CBI probe, removal of RPSC chairperson and education minister. RLP Chief Hanuman Beniwal said a dozen recruitment examinations have been cancelled since 2013 due to paper leaks in Congress as well as BJP governments.
In Rajasthan, 237 people were arrested by the Rajasthan police in connection with paper leak cases between January, 2019 and December 24, 2022. A total of 14 cases have been lodged related to paper leaks. The accused have been charge sheeted in seven cases.
To be sure, the government notified the ‘Rajasthan Public Examinations (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act 2022’ in April 2022. Apart from jail term, the new law also had a provision for confiscation, attachment and confiscation of the property obtained from the proceeds of crime.
