E-Paper
Bihar doctor who took photos of UP Police constable exam question papers arrested
As many as 397 people have been arrested so far in 178 FIRs lodged in 41 districts of U.P. in connection with the leak.
U.P. Special Task Force on Saturday arrested a Bihar resident from Meerut for his alleged involvement in the question paper leak of U.P. Police constable exam, senior police officials here said.
They said Shubham Mandal, a doctor who hails from Patna and has been in the STF’s custody since Friday, was the one who took pictures of two sets of the question paper at the Ahmedabad warehouse of a transport company hired by the printing agency.
As many as 397 people have been arrested so far in 178 FIRs lodged in 41 districts of U.P. in connection with the leak.
STF officials said Mandal completed his MBBS from Nalanda Medical College in 2021 and was presently working on a contractual basis at a primary health centre in Bihar’s Katihar district. They said Mandal had learned to open trunks from his childhood doctor friend Bittu, and the two had even spent jail time in another question paper leak case in Patna in 2017.
The officials said Bittu introduced Mandal to Ravi Attri and Rajiv Nayan Mishra, the masterminds of the constable exam question paper leak case, after which he started working for them.
“Mandal reached Ahmedabad on being called by Attri and entered the warehouse with the help of Rohit Kumar Pandey and Shivam Giri, two employees of the warehouse, through a window. Then he opened the trunk to click pictures of the question papers on February 5, about 12 days before the exam was scheduled on February 17,” a senior STF official said and added, “Mandal tried to get pictures of another two sets of question papers on February 9 but failed to get them.”
On Friday, Rohit Kumar Pandey, Shivam Giri and a former employee of the transport company, Abhishek Shukla, were arrested by the STF from Ghaziabad after which Mandal and the two masterminds’ names surfaced.
Attri and Mishra are still at large. Mishra was also involved in the question paper leak of RO/ARO exam conducted by the UPPSC on February 11. The state government cancelled the exam on March 2. Mishra was also involved in leaking question papers of Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) in 2021 and Madhya Pradesh staff nurse exam paper leak in 2023. Attri is an MBBS doctor.
