Three more arrested over Army paper leak

Mumbai: As part of its probe into leak of question papers meant for Sunday’s army recruitment test, Thane crime branch officials on Monday raided three premises belonging to coaching centres in Goa, Pune and Nagpur, and arrested three persons.  

Two hundred “original” educational certificates were found, which are suspected of belonging to examinees who were clients of the coaching centres but hadn’t paid fees for accessing test papers but submitted these documents as surety. Handwritten exam question papers, Rs 5 lakh in cash and two cars were also found.

The police is verifying whether the handwritten notes were part of Sunday exam papers. The police said the three arrested accused used to work with the main accused of these coaching classes. All 21 accused were produced in court and have been remanded to police custody till February 4. On Monday, three premises where 18 of the accused kept all their documents were raided.

Documents of 49 candidates and a total 52 handwritten question papers with answers of technical trade and general duty trade were seized at the first place in Hotel Sandhya bar & restaurant, Vagator Beach, Goa.

A police official said, “At the second place near Maurya Bhuwan, Nirmal Nagar, Nagpur, we found 222 candidates’ documents. We also found handwritten question papers with answers and original certificates of candidates apart from one Scorpio, one Xyolo, one i10, and one Cruzer... At the third place at Sanskruti Hall, Fursungi, Pune, 79 candidates’ original certificates and 1 Cruzer four-wheeler worth Rs 5 lakh were found.”

Thane police had received information a couple of days ago from an institute which conducts classes for army job aspirants that some city students were to be given question papers in advance for a price. Police officials laid a trap and caught the students and middlemen from lodges and other places with copies of question papers.

A police official said, “The middlemen had also arranged for fake domicile and residence proof for students hailing from other places so as to enable them to appear for exams in that zone. We are suspecting that the papers were leaked either from the press where they were printed or from distribution centres.”