Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay arrested in paper leak case, row erupts
Sanjay was arrested after police gathered concrete evidence about his involvement in Class 10 Hindi question paper leak.
Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and Lok Sabha MP Bandi Sanjay was arrested by the Warangal police after he was named as the mastermind in leakage of a Class 10 question paper a day ago, officers said.
BJP leaders and workers held protests across the southern state, calling “unconstitutional” the arrest of Sanjay, who represents Karimnagar constituency in the Lok Sabha. Late in the evening, a local court in Warangal remanded the state BJP chief to two-week judicial custody.
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Warangal police commissioner AV Ranganath told reporters that Sanjay was arrested after police gathered concrete evidence about his involvement in Class 10 Hindi question paper leak.
“The BJP state president was booked under Section 5 of the Telangana Public Examinations (Prevention of Malpractice and Unfair means) Act, 1997, besides Section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code,” Ranganath said.
After images of a Class 10 Hindi question paper surfaced on the social media platform, police took up the investigation and apprehended a 16-year-old boy and arrested two others on Tuesday, who include a journalist and a lab assistant who had allegedly circulated the question paper on the app. Subsequently, Sanjay Kumar was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday along with another accused, a driver, police said, adding a total of 10 people have been named as accused in the case and five are absconding.
{{/usCountry}}After images of a Class 10 Hindi question paper surfaced on the social media platform, police took up the investigation and apprehended a 16-year-old boy and arrested two others on Tuesday, who include a journalist and a lab assistant who had allegedly circulated the question paper on the app. Subsequently, Sanjay Kumar was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday along with another accused, a driver, police said, adding a total of 10 people have been named as accused in the case and five are absconding.
{{/usCountry}}When Sanjay was produced before Hanamkonda principal magistrate Anitha Rapolu, his lawyers claimed that it was a case of “political vendetta” and he was being fixed in the case for questioning the “failure” of the state government in preventing the leakage of question papers.
{{/usCountry}}When Sanjay was produced before Hanamkonda principal magistrate Anitha Rapolu, his lawyers claimed that it was a case of “political vendetta” and he was being fixed in the case for questioning the “failure” of the state government in preventing the leakage of question papers.
{{/usCountry}}In the first information report (FIR), registered by Kamalapur police in Hanamkonda district, Sanjay has been named as accused number 1 (A-1), besides nine other people, including a juvenile as accused. “Of the other nine accused, three people — journalist Boora Prashant, lab assistant G Mahesh and driver M Shiva Ganesh have arrested,” the police commissioner said, adding the juvenile has been apprehended. “Five others are absconding.”
Providing the details, Ranganath told reporters that Sanjay had spoken to Prashant on Monday evening and instructed him to exploit the situation of the SSC paper leak in Vikarabad the same day. “The MP told Prashant that if a similar question paper leak could happen on Tuesday, it would defame the government and show it as a failure of the state government,” Ranganath said.
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“We feel that they wanted to create a sense of insecurity among students. There is no political motive in filing cases. This (the leakage of papers) was done under the direction of Bandi Sanjay,” he added.
The senior officer further said the leaked question paper found its way into the phones of several BJP leaders, including former minister and legislator Etela Rajender.
“Technical evidence by analysing the call details of the phones of the accused and WhatsApp chats of Prashant with Sanjay proved beyond reasonable doubt that Sanjay was involved in a conspiracy regarding the leaking and copying of the question papers on April 4,” Ranganath said.
The commissioner said the juvenile, along with his friend, wanted to help another write the examination at the Uppala Government School under Kamalapur police station limits. “On Tuesday, the minor went through the rare gate inside the school at 9.30 am after the examination had begun. The teenager then went to the first floor and with the help of a mobile phone took a photo of the question paper. He then shared it with others and subsequently, it went viral,” he said.
“Prashant circulated the question paper to his media friends on WhatsApp and also shared it with Sanjay and BJP MLA Eatala Rajender. According to call data records, Prashant had made 146 calls to various people, including Sanjay in about an hour,” the commissioner said.
He added that Sanjay refused to surrender his mobile phone to the police. “If we can get access to it, the entire conversation with Prashant can be disclosed. We are confident of breaking the conspiracy in a couple of days,” Ranganath added.
Earlier, Sanjay was picked up from his residence by the Karimnagar police in the early hours of Wednesday, amid stiff resistance from his family members and BJP workers. He was first shifted to the Bommalaramaram police station in Yadadri-Bhongir district, from where he was taken to Palakurthy.
Meanwhile, a tense situation prevailed all over Telangana, with the BJP leaders and workers resorting to agitations against Sanjay’s arrest. Workers of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), too, held protests at several places in Hyderabad, Warangal and Karimnagar demanding Sanjay’s expulsion from Parliament for conspiring against the state government.
Amid protest, police arrested BJP MLAs Eatala Rajender and M Raghunandan Rao, besides party general secretary G Premender Reddy and others, while they were leading demonstrations in Karimnagar and Hanamkonda.
Calling it a case of “illegal arrest”, the BJP also filed a petition in the Telangana high court seeking immediate release of Sanjay. BJP general secretary and Telangana in-charge Tarun Chugh said Bandi Sanjay’s arrest would prove to be “the last nail in the coffin of chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s repressive regime”.
He added: “Our national leadership has taken this brazen attempt very seriously and KCR will pay heavily for his sins.”
BRS leader and state finance minister T Harish Rao alleged that the state BJP president was also behind the leakage of the Telugu question paper on Monday at Tandur.
“While Prashant involved in the Warangal case is a BJP party worker, the teacher involved in the Tandur incident is a member of a BJP-affiliated teachers’ organisation,” he alleged, accusing the BJP of playing with the future of students for “political gain”.
