One more lands in SIT net in Telangana paper leak case
After the paper leak came to the fore, the TSPSC cancelled the examination and postponed other exams for the posts of veterinary assistant surgeon, scheduled to be held on March 15 and 16.
The special investigation team (SIT) of the Hyderabad police probing the Telangana question paper leak of the written examination conducted by Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) for recruitment of assistant engineers (civil) arrested one more person, officials privy to the matter said on Monday.
With this, the total number of people arrested so far in the question paper leakage scam has gone up to 15. The SIT is also probing the allegations of question papers leaked in otherrecruitment tests.
After the paper leak came to the fore, the TSPSC cancelled the examination and postponed other exams for the posts of veterinary assistant surgeon, scheduled to be held on March 15 and 16.
On Monday, the SIT authorities arrested the accused identified as Tirupataiah from Mahabubnagar district. The accused is believed to have sold the question paper of assistant engineer (civil) examination conducted by the TSPSC on March 5, a police official privy to the development said.
According to preliminary investigation, Tirupathaiah obtained the question paper from L Dhakya Nayak, husband of a Hindi teacher Renuka Nayak, who managed to get the question paper from the two TSPSC employees – P Praveen Kumar, an assistant section officer and A Rajasekhar Reddy, a network expert, said the police official.
“Tirupathaiah sold the question paper to Rajender Kumar of Nerellapalli village of Mahabubnagar district for ₹10 lakh,” said the official.
“Kumar, who was working as a quality controller in MGNREGA at Gandeed village, was arrested on Sunday and remanded to judicial custody. Tirupathaiah, too, is being remanded on Monday,” the police official said.
“The SIT is also questioning another four suspects who are believed to have leaked the group-I examination paper but they are yet to be arrested,” the official said.
Earlier, the SIT authorities had arrested three TSPSC employees, Shameem, Damera Ramesh Kumar and N Suresh, on March 23 in connection with Group-1 (prelims) examination question paper leak case. All three wrote the exam held on October 18, 2022 and scored over 100 out of 150 marks.
Two days later, the police arrested Prashant Reddy, brother-in-law of Rajashekar Reddy, who allegedly spent ₹15 lakh to procure the Group-1 examination question paper. He also scored more than 100 marks, according to the police.
The SIT is also questioning around 60 candidates of the Group-I preliminary exam who scored 100 and above marks out of a total of 150 marks, the official quoted above said.
Meanwhile, the SIT on Monday grilled the four prime suspects - Praveen Kumar, Rajashekar Reddy, Dhakya and Rajeshwar Nayak for the second consecutive day, after obtaining permission from the Nampally criminal courts for the police custody.
This is the second time that SIT has taken the accused into custody after they were arrested along with five others on March 13. They were also questioned e after the court had sent them to police custody for six days.
Praveen and Rajashekar Reddy had allegedly stolen question papers of some exams from a computer in the confidential section of the Commission and sold it to other accused, said the police official.
“We are suspecting that the question paper leak is not confined to only Hyderabad but its surrounding districts of Ranga Reddy and Mahabubnagar and has spread to more districts with the accused selling the question papers to many others. That is why the SIT is carrying on the intense grilling of the arrested,” the police official quoted above said.
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