E-Paper
Gujarat ATS arrests 30 in question paper leak case
The Gujarat junior clerk recruitment exam was cancelled hours before it was to take place on January 29 following a question paper leak
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Thursday said it has arrested 30 persons for allegedly buying the leaked question paper of the state’s junior clerk recruitment exam, which was cancelled hours before it was to take place on January 29.
Following a raid on a computer centre in Vadodara in January in connection with the paper leak, the call letters, blank cheques and original documents of these 30 candidates, including seven women, were seized, as per an ATS press release.
It said these 30 persons had agreed to pay between ₹12 lakh and ₹15 lakh to those involved in the paper leak, and the blank cheques and original certificates were submitted as “guarantees”.
Most of these candidates belong to north and central Gujarat districts.
As many as 9.53 lakh candidates were scheduled to appear for the exams that were being conducted by the Gujarat Panchayat Service Commission on January 29 across the state to recruit 1,181 junior clerks.
Acting on a tip-off, the ATS had detained a suspect and recovered a copy of the question paper during the early hours of January 29, after which the exam was cancelled.
Earlier, 19 persons, including agents and middlemen, were arrested for cheating, criminal offences and other offences after the leak was detected in January and they continue to be behind bars.
