Dismissed air force man arrested in UP Police exam paper leak case

On February 24, chief minister Yogi Adityanath cancelled the examination over allegations of paper leak and ordered a retest within six months

A dismissed Indian Air Force personnel was arrested by a team of the special task force (STF) of the UP Police in connection with UP Constable Recruitment and Promotion examination paper leak, officials said on Wednesday.

Pramod Pathak was questioned by the police and, after interrogation, his residence in Arun Vihar in Sector 37, was searched. The search unearthed a large amount of incriminating evidence and an FIR was registered at the Sector 39 police station against Pathak under charges of cheating and forgery and he was arrested (HT Photo)

The exam was held on February 17 and 18 and nearly 4.82 million aspirants appeared for the examinations for 60,244 posts. Later on February 24, chief minister Yogi Adityanath cancelled the examination over allegations of paper leak and ordered a retest within six months. .

The STF has been leading a statewide probe in the case and, on Tuesday, Pramod Pathak (40), a resident of Arun Vihar township in Sector 37, Noida, was arrested from Mukherjee Nagar in Delhi by Noida unit of STF, senior officers said.

According to Rajkumar Mishra, additional superintendent of police, field unit (Noida STF), Pathak’s involvement was revealed by two other suspects who were arrested earlier in February.

“On February 18, Monu Pandit and Rajneesh Ranjan were arrested from Jhansi district. During interrogation, they told us that one of their associates, Pathak, was active in Delhi,” said the officer.

Acting on the information, the STF unit nabbed Pathak from Mukherjee Nagar in Delhi on Tuesday evening.

“Pathak was questioned by the police and, after interrogation, his residence in Arun Vihar in Sector 37, was searched. The search unearthed a large amount of incriminating evidence and an FIR was registered at the Sector 39 police station against Pathak under charges of cheating and forgery and he was arrested,” said Mishra.

The police recovered a fake Aadhaar card, one original Aadhaar card, fake Air Force ID card, 26 admit cards, 38 bank cheques, four passbooks, 14 pages related to police recruitment, two diaries and mobile phone from Pathak’s residence.

The officer said Pathak was recruited as an airman in the Indian Air Force in 2009.

“Pathak completed his graduation from Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi and in 2009, he was recruited as an airman. Till 2022, he was deployed in several places, including Kharagpur in West Bengal, Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir and at the Delhi headquarters of IAF,” said the officer.

While working in the air force, in 2017, Pathak opened a physical training academy to offer army recruitment training to aspirants in Khair town of Aligarh district.

“In 2018, Monu Pandit, who studied with Pathak in Bajna Inter College in Mathura, met him and became his close friend. Since 2010, Pandit has been taking money from aspirants and trying to rig competitive examinations in various ways to help them gain entry. Pandit got Pathak involved in the racket and they started a gang for rigging various competitive examinations of the armed forces, Coast Guard, Delhi Police, SSC GD and UP Police,” said the STF officer.

When air force officers came to know about this, an investigation was conducted and Pathak was found guilty. He was dismissed from the air force on August 18, 2022, said Mishra.

“It was found that the admit card for Uttar Pradesh constable recruitment exam, which was recovered from suspect Amitabh Rawat, who was arrested by STF on February 20 in Jhansi, was sent by Pathak and Pandit. Further investigation is on in this regard,” said the officer.