Seventeen people arrested in Balasore for leaking the Odisha Staff Selection Commission exam papers befriended workers at printing presses to get question papers also in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi, investigators said.
The commission on Sunday cancelled the examination for 1008 posts of junior engineers after it came to light that the question papers were leaked days earlier on July 16. Copies of the papers were given to candidates at a hotel in West Bengal Digha in the guise of sample papers.
On Thursday, police said Vishal Kumar Chaurasia, who led the gang, worked with the rural works department in Bihar’s Patna. They added he was allegedly involved in the leak of question papers for the Central Staff Selection Commission for recruitment of sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspector in 2013-14, Madhya Pradesh state civil service main and preliminary examination the same year, and Bihar Public Service Commission’s combined preliminary examination in May 2022.
Balasore police superintendent Sagarkia Nath, who supervised the investigation in the case, said the modus operandi was the same. “They used to lure lower-level officials in the printing presses with money to get question papers...They would then contact candidates and provide them with the leaked question paper calling them sample papers.”
{{/usCountry}}Balasore police superintendent Sagarkia Nath, who supervised the investigation in the case, said the modus operandi was the same. “They used to lure lower-level officials in the printing presses with money to get question papers...They would then contact candidates and provide them with the leaked question paper calling them sample papers.”
{{/usCountry}}Nath said the gang did not initially take any money but original certificates. “In case the question papers supplied matched with the questions asked in the exams, the candidates were asked to pay half the amount. Once the results were declared, the successful candidates were asked to pay the rest of the amount and take back their certificates.”
Nath said in the case of the Odisha exam, Chaurasia got in touch with Virendra Singh, who worked as a helper at a printing press outside Odisha where the question papers were printed. The two come from the same place.
Chaurasia first worked as a tax assistant from 2014 to 2016 after clearing the Central Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level examination. He was arrested and suspended from service after being accused of leaking a question paper. Chaurasia in 2016 cleared another examination and was posted with the rural works department in Patna.
Nath said after getting the question papers, Chaurasia would provide the candidates with the answers. “To avoid suspicion, he would advise the candidates not to attempt all the questions. From the interrogation, we have found that he cracked all the examinations on merit.”