Police on Sunday busted an inter state racket and apprehended five persons, including a high school teacher of Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly leaking the question paper of an all India recruitment examination for the post of LIC's assistant administrative officer.
Acting on a tip off, sleuths of Commissioner's Task Force (West Zone) nabbed them in the early hours after raiding a house in Gandhi Nagar in Hyderabad and seized question papers of the exams which were to be held, six mobile phones and Rs 6,000 cash from their possession, Task Force Deputy Commissioner of Police V B Kamalasan Reddy said.
The accused, identified as Yogeshwar Kumar Rao alias Yogiraj, a high school teacher from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, Palvai Ashok Kumar, B Anna Rao, Perla Srinivas and Gudla Srinivas (all agents from Andhra Pradesh), were charging Rs 7 lakh from each candidate for providing the leaked question paper, Reddy said.
Prime accused Yogiraj got the question paper from his childhood friend Lal Bahadur, a resident of Lucknow on February 23 and Bahadur got it from his relative Dindayal, a native of Noida who is working in a printing press, he said.
"Yogiraj contacted his main agent Ashok Kumar and came to Hyderabad on February 25 and along with Ashok and his agent Anna Rao went to Vijayawada yesterday where Perla Srinivas and Gudla Srinivas procured some of the prospective candidates, who were appearing this examination," Reddy said, adding that apart from selling question papers in Hyderabad, Yogiraj also contacted some of his known agents in Vijayawada and had given question papers to them.
{{/usCountry}}"Yogiraj contacted his main agent Ashok Kumar and came to Hyderabad on February 25 and along with Ashok and his agent Anna Rao went to Vijayawada yesterday where Perla Srinivas and Gudla Srinivas procured some of the prospective candidates, who were appearing this examination," Reddy said, adding that apart from selling question papers in Hyderabad, Yogiraj also contacted some of his known agents in Vijayawada and had given question papers to them.
{{/usCountry}}"This gang had also leaked out question papers of Kendriya Vishwa Vidyalaya teachers' recruitment which was held on February 11 and 12," he said.
The gang members used to keep original certificates of the candidates till money was paid.
For posts like AAO in LIC they collect Rs 7 lakh from each candidate. A day ahead of the examination they will provide the question paper to them and keep them in a secluded place. After appearing in the examination, candidates had to pay Rs 1 lakh and Rs 6 lakhs after the final selection, he explained.
"We tallied the seized question paper of an all-India examination for the post of AAO of LIC with the original question paper with the help of Shaik Suleman, Deputy General Manager, EDCIL (India) Ltd, Noida, who is in charge for conducting the exam in Hyderabad and they were found to be the same," Reddy said.
Yogiraj got the question paper from the press where it was printed and passed on them to his agents. The agents established contact with the prospective candidates who were appearing the examinations by going to coaching centres, the DCP said.
The arrested accused persons, along with the seized material, were handed over to the Central Crime Station (a wing of Hyderabad Police) for further action, Reddy said.