Gujarat ATS Arrests Another Odisha Man In Connection With Panchayat Junior Clerk Paper Leak

The Gujarat ATS has nabbed another man from Odisha in connection with the panchayat junior clerk paper leak. Earlier, the Gujarat ATS arrested 16 accused in the incident.

Gujarat ATS Arrests Another Odisha Man In Connection With Panchayat Junior Clerk Paper Leak (Representational Image)

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The Gujarat ATS has arrested another Odisha man Sarojkumar Seemanchal Malu, in connection with the Gujarat Panchayat Junior Clerk Exam Paper Leak matter. Earlier this week, the Gujarat ATS arrested 16 accused in the matter, soon after the paper leak incident came inti light. 

On Sunday, January 29, the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board (GPSSB) cancelled the Panchayat Junior Clerk Exam 2023, hours before it was scheduled to be conducted, after the news of the exam paper leak broke. 

The Gujarat Panchayat Junior Clerk Exam 2023 was scheduled to be held on January 31, 2023, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 noon. Around 9.5 lakh registered candidates were set to appear for the examination which aimed to fill a total of 1,181 junior clerk vacancies. 

While announcing the cancellation of the Gujarat Panchayat Junior Clerk Examination, the board expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to the candidates and asked them not to go to the examination centres. 

After the exam cancellation, the GPSSB later announced that it will reconduct the exam soon and candidates will be notified about the same at the earliest. "The examination will be conducted afresh at the earliest, for which the board will issue a new advertisement," the board has said in an official statement. 

Following the earlier arrests, the Gujarat ATS said that it has arrested 16 persons in connection to the matter and have also recovered copies of the question paper from their possession. 

"The state ATS nabbed 15 accused from a computer exam centre named StackWise Technology in Vadodara around 1.30 am on Sunday when they had gathered there with the copy of the question paper. The question paper recovered from them matched with that of the original paper, prompting the government to immediately decide on postponing the exam," Gujarat ATS SP Sunil Joshi was quoted saying by PTI.

Working on a tip-off that a man from Odisha, identified as Pradip Nayak, was going to deliver the question paper to Ketan Barot and Bhaskar Chaudhary in Vadodara city, the ATS formed a special team involving personnel from the Surat crime branch and Vadodara Special Operations Group (SOG) and arrested 15 persons from the exam centre along with the copy of the photo and copy of the question paper, Joshi was further quoted adding.