Army exam paper leak: bail denied to 8 accused

PUNE A court in Pune denied bail on Wednesday to eight of nine arrested in the case involving the leak of an Indian Army recruitment exam paper, detected by the local crime branch in February with help of Army intelligence inputs

PUNE A court in Pune denied bail on Wednesday to eight of nine arrested in the case involving the leak of an Indian Army recruitment exam paper, detected by the local crime branch in February with help of Army intelligence inputs.

HT Image

The nine include one Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, and two serving civil staff of the defence force from various parts of the country. The decision was made by Additional Sessions Judge Sacchidanand Bapurao Hedaoo in the presence of public prosecutor Premkumar Agarwal and multiple defence lawyers. The investigating officer is assistant commissioner of police Lakshman Borate.

Those arrested so far include Lieutenant Colonel Bhagatpreetsingh Sartajsingh Bedi (44), Major Thiru Murugan Thangavelu (47); Major Vasant Vijay Kilari (45), Vira Prasad Kotiswamy Narnepati (41), all from Delhi cantonment; Kishore Mahadev Giri (40), from Malegaon in Baramati; Madhav Sheshrao Gitte (38) a resident of Sappers Vihar colony in Pune; another accused called Bharat Lakshman Adakmol (37) from Pachora, Pune; Gopal Yuvraj Koli (31) a resident of BEG Centre in Dighi; and Uday Dattu Auti (23) a resident of BEG Khadki. These have been arrested in a case registered at Wanowrie. Ali Akhtar Khan (47), Azad Lalmohammed Khan (37) and Mahendra Chandrabhan (37) have been held in the case registered at Vishrantwadi.

Giri, Gite, Koli, and Auti were arrested on March 1, Adakmol was arrested on March . Major Thangavelu was arrested on March 7, while Major Kilari was arrested on March. Narnepati was arrested on May 14 while Lt Col Bedi was arrested on May 17 by the Pune police crime branch.

While Lt Col Bedi has not yet applied for bail, the others have applied, and all their applications were rejected. The police have recovered ₹150,000 and an answer sheet from Lt Col Bedi’s residence in Delhi, according to a submission in court.

“The court had written to the Indian Army headquarters about the three officers who were arrested from three different locations. We had asked them to take over the respective cases through their procedure, but they have responded saying proceedings should continue in this court,” said Advocate Agarwal.

There are two cases registered in the matter - one under Sections 420, 409, 34 of Indian Penal Code, Sections 6 and 7 of Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University Board and Other Specified Examination Act, 1982; Sections 7, 12, and 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (2018 Amendment) and Section 66(c) of Information Technology Act at Wanowrie police station, and a similar one at Vishrantwadi police station.