SIT submits 250-page report on TSPSC question paper leak case

A special investigation team (SIT) of the Hyderabad police, probing the TSPSC exam paper leak submitted its summary investigation report to the state high court on Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said.

A special investigation team (SIT) of the Hyderabad police, probing the leak of several question papers of the recruitment tests conducted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission, submitted its summary investigation report to the state high court in a sealed cover on Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said.

The SIT indicated to the high court that an amount of ₹40 lakh changed hands in the entire scandal. “In all, 15 persons were arrested, including those who had bought the question papers from the accused,” the official quoted above said.

A senior official of the Hyderabad police said on condition of anonymity that the SIT, in its 250-page report, comprising various annexures and a 18-page summary, said the kingpins in the entire scam were only two people: P Praveen Kumar, an assistant section officer who was working as a personal assistant to TSPSC secretary Anitha Ramachandran and A Rajasekhar Reddy, a network expert at the commission.

The SIT authorities, who examined the pen drives seized from the accused, said the duo had copied the question papers from a computer that was located in the confidential section on February 27.

The SIT indicated to the high court that an amount of ₹40 lakh changed hands in the entire scandal. “In all, 15 persons were arrested, including those who had bought the question papers from the accused,” the official quoted above said.

The SIT had questioned close to 150 people in the case, including those who obtained more than 100 marks in the Group-1 examination question paper. “Besides, the SIT authorities also quizzed TSPSC chairman B Janardhan Reddy, secretary Anitha Ramachandran and section officer in the confidential section Shankar Lakshmi.”

The SIT told the high court that it had gathered fool-proof evidence on the role of the accused and hence, there was no need for any independent judicial inquiry into the scam. “We are awaiting the report from the state forensic science lab which was examining the hard discs and pen drives seized from the accused,” the SIT said.

In an interesting development in the case, the Enforcement Directorate(ED), too, entered the probe suo motu into the TSPSC examination paper leakage, on the suspicion of the involvement of money laundering in the case, an official familiar with the matter said.

The ED submitted a petition in the Nampally criminal courts on Monday seeking permission to initiate a probe into the case. It proposed to issue notices to the TSPSC officials, including assistant secretaries Satyanarayana and Shankar Lakshmi.

The official said the ED had already written to the Central Crime Station authorities on March 23 itself asking for documents related to the TSPSC question paper leakage. A four-member team of the ED would investigate the case to look into the money laundering aspect of the case.

“The ED authorities want to question the arrested in Chanchalguda jail itself and asked the court to direct the jail authorities to make necessary arrangements in this regard,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the state high court on Tuesday deferred the hearing to April 24 on a petition filed by National Students Union of India (NSUI) seeking the CBI probe into the TSPSC question paper leakage case.

Arguing on behalf of NSUI state president Balmuri Venkat, Supreme Court senior counsel Vivek Tankha said the way the probe was conducted by the SIT was leading to several suspicions. “When the case is still under investigation, the state government claimed that only two persons were involved in the case. This shows that the SIT was probing the case as per the directions of the government,” he said.

Tankha said the SIT was trying to fix only small fish in the case, but there were suspicions that several big people were involved in the scam. “That is why, the case has to be handed over to the CBI,” he argued.

Arguing on behalf of the state government, advocate general BR Prasad said the SIT was conducting the investigation in the most transparent manner. “The police have already arrested 15 people and will arrest more people in the case,” he said.