UP News: The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested six people on Sunday for their alleged involvement in leaking the examination paper for the posts of review officers and assistant review officers. The arrests were made in Prayagraj, the STF said in a statement.
The Special Task Force (STF) of the UP Police arrested six members of a gang, including a staff member of a printing press, for their alleged involvement in the paper leak, as reported by news agency PTI. A case has been registered against the accused under relevant sections.
The exam is conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC). It was held across the state on February 11. Following reports of a paper leak, the state government cancelled the exam on March 2.
Those arrested are: Sunil Raghuvanshi, a resident of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and a printing press worker, Subhash Prakash, a resident of Madhubani in Bihar, Vishal Dubey and Sandeep Pandey (residents of Prayagraj), Amarjeet Sharma, a resident of Gaya (Bihar), and Vivek Upadhyay, a resident of Ballia, as reported by PTI.
A laptop, six mobile phones, and five blank cheques were seized from them, the STF said. Prior to this, 10 people were arrested in this connection.
A case under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc.), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 34 (common intention), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC has been lodged at the Civil Lines police station in Prayagraj.
The police said that charges under the Uttar Pradesh Public Examination Act, 1998 and Information Technology Act have also been slapped on the arrested accused, as reported by PTI.
Exam Paper Leaked In 2 Ways, Says STF
The STF also said that during interrogation of the accused, it was discovered that the question paper of the examination was leaked in two ways.
The question paper was leaked from the examination centre itself on the day of the examination on February 11 at around 06.30 am before the commencement of the examination by scanning it with the help of mobile phones by Kamlesh Kumar Pal alias KK, Dr. Sharad Singh Patel, Saurabh Shukla, Arun Singh and Arpit Vineet Yashwant, who looks after the examination work of Bishop Johnson Girls School and College Prayagraj, as reported by PTI.
All five have already been arrested by the UP STF and sent to jail in this connection, they said.
The second way in which the question paper was leaked was from the printing press, according to the STF. Sunil Raghuvanshi, an employee of the press, was involved in the paper leak. On February 3, Raghuvanshi was present in the press on the pretext of repairing the machine. He came out of the press with his drinking water bottle upon getting an opportunity and brought the question paper out by hiding it inside, they said. He took the question paper to his house and kept it there.
He informed Vishal Dubey about this and Dubey told Rajiv Nayan Mishra alias Rahul and Subhash Prakash.
Following reports of the paper leak, the Uttar Pradesh government on March 2 cancelled the preliminary exam conducted on February 11 for the recruitment of review officers (ROs) and assistant review officers (AROs). Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had then directed that the exam be conducted again within six months.