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U.P. police paper leak case: UPPRPB blacklists Guj-based agency for negligence
UP Police blacklists Edutest Solutions for negligence in police constable exam paper leak, arrests 400+ people. Owner sought in USA, faces legal action.
The UP Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB) has blacklisted Gujarat-based Edutest Solutions Private Limited, which had conducted the recruitment examination for 60,244 posts of police constables on February 17-18 this year, for negligence leading to paper leak.
On February 24, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had cancelled the examination after confirmed reports of the paper leak. Confirming the blacklisting of the agency, director and chairman, UPPRPB, Rajeev Krishna said a recommendation has also been made to not give the Guj-based agency contract to conduct any recruitment examination in future.
“The board is further trying to zero in on a new agency to conduct the examination maintaining transparency and sanctity of the examination and the fresh dates of the examination will be announced after finalising the new agency,” he added.
The special task force (STF) of UP Police, which is investigating the paper leak case, has arrested over 400 people so far in 178 FIRs lodged in 41 districts of the state in this connection. The STF has also arrested two alleged masterminds behind the leak—Rajiv Nayan Mishra and Ravi Attri—who are currently lodged in Gautam Buddh Nagar jail.
Besides, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a money laundering case under different sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on May 2 this year, considering involvement of major money in the entire thing.
A senior STF official, who is privy to the investigation, said the agency owner Vineet Arya has so far not turned up before the STF team for questioning even after four notices sent to him in this regard. He said Arya is stated to be in the USA for the past four months after the paper leak. He said the STF has sought legal opinion to initiate action against Arya as he is not cooperating in investigation.
The STF official further said the investigation so far has led to surfacing of several evidence related to the negligence on part of the agency in maintaining secrecy of question papers. The STF official said initial investigation had revealed that the question papers were leaked from the warehouse of a transport company hired for the transportation of papers from Ahmedabad to different places in Uttar Pradesh.
He said the two alleged masterminds managed to sneak into the warehouse and got access to the question papers by opening the trunk in which they were kept.
Later, the question papers were provided to different people and arrangements were made for as many as 500 aspirants at Nature Valley Resort at Manesar, Gurugram, Haryana, and for 300 aspirants at Shiv Mahashakti Resort, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. These aspirants were made to read and solve question papers around 24 hours before the examination, the official said.
