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Former TDP minister Narayana held for Class 10 paper leak in Andhra
Police picked up Narayana, who was the Andhra Pradesh municipal administration and urban development minister during the TDP rule, from his residence at Kondapur in Hyderabad.
Police in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district on Tuesday arrested Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader and former minister Ponguru Narayana in connection with an alleged leak of a question paper of Class 10 exam two weeks ago.
Police picked up Narayana, who was the state municipal administration and urban development minister during the TDP rule, from his residence at Kondapur in Hyderabad. “He was being shifted to Chittoor for questioning,” Chittoor superintendent of police Y Rishanth Reddy told reporters.
Narayana owns a large chain of educational institutions in the Telugu states and across different parts of the country. The question paper was allegedly leaked from one of the schools belonging to his group in Chittoor.
Apart from Narayana, six others including Bala Gangadhar, dean of the group of institutions in Tirupati, were arrested after gathering all the technical evidences, apart from the deposition of the accused. “All the accused had earlier worked in Narayana group of institutions since 2008. We shall produce the former minister in the court shortly for judicial remand,” Reddy said.
The SP said a case was booked at Chittoor Town-I police station based on the complaint lodged by Chittoor district educational officer (DEO) on April 27 which said a question paper of Telugu subject of the Class X examination was being circulated in WhatsApp groups by some unknown persons.
“During the investigation, we have traced a mobile phone links of the accused, which ultimately led to the involvement of Narayana. Apparently, the accused resorted to leakage of question paper only to increase the number of admissions in the Narayana group of institutions,” Reddy said.
Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, the SP said they would gather the details of the invigilators well in advance so that the latter could be managed to help the students.
“The students are categorised based on their capabilities and see that the less talented students are sent to a particular examination centres. Soon after the examination begins, the question paper is captured on mobile and through WhatsApp, it reaches the head office of the Narayana group of institutions, where the answers are prepared and later passed on to the students through invigilators,” Reddy said.
He said the leakage of question paper amounts to criminal breach of trust and malpractice of public examinations. A case has been registered under the AP Public Examinations (Prevention of Malpractices and Unfair Means) Act, 1997.
State education minister Botsa Satyanarayana said as many as 69 persons, including 45 teachers, including some government teachers, were identified and action has been initiated. The government teachers who were involved in the scam would be suspended, he said.
Strongly condemning the arrest of Narayana, TDP general secretary and lawmaker Nara Lokesh said it was part of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s endless political vendetta against the opposition leaders.
In a statement, Lokesh said Narayana’s arrest was made to cover up the government’s inefficiency in preventing the leakage of 10th class examination paper. “The government is focusing on political vengeance rather than protecting the interests of lakhs of students who were writing different examinations,” he said.
CID files cases against Naidu
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh police on Tuesday also booked former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and 13 others in connection with the alleged irregularities in designing of the inner ring road around Amaravati.
Following a complaint lodged by YSRC leader and Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy on April 27 and submission of a preliminary inquiry report on May 9, the CID registered a criminal case against Naidu and 13 others in the case.
Apart from Naidu, the accused in the case included former minister Narayana, industrialist Lingamaneni Ramesh and his companies, Heritage Foods Ltd etc.
The FIR said certain illegal and corrupt activities were committed by highly placed government officials in the government between 2014 to 2019 with regard to designing of the master plan for the AP Capital and the Capital City and alignment of the inner Ring Road and its connected arterial roads.
The FIR said it caused wrongful gain to certain chosen persons and entities connected to the decision-making authorities derived maximum pecuniary benefits and causing corresponding wrongful loss to the general public and the public exchequer thus amount to cheating.
Cases were filed under various sections of the IPC including Section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating).
