Three individuals accused in the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak case were granted conditional bail on Thursday by the Nampally criminal court. Renuka, Ramesh, and Prashanth Reddy were each required to post a personal bond of Rs. 50,000. As part of the bail conditions, they must appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for three months. Additionally, the court ordered the seizure of their passports.
Earlier, the court rejected Renuka's bail petition. She had sought bail on the grounds of childcare responsibilities and health issues. Renuka, identified as the third accused in the case, was a friend of P. Praveen Kumar, the primary accused who served as an assistant section officer at TSPSC.
Renuka, a former teacher, had purchased the question paper from Praveen for her brother Rajeshwar Nayak, who was appearing for the Assistant Engineer exam. Alongside her husband Lavdyavath Dhakya, Renuka allegedly facilitated the sale of the question papers to other candidates through Ketavath Srinivas, a police constable.
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The SIT, responsible for the investigation, recently arrested six additional individuals, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to 27.
The TSPSC scandal came to light on March 13 after a complaint was filed by a youth. Initially, the police detained nine suspects, including Praveen Kumar and Rajashekar Reddy, a network administrator at TSPSC. They stand accused of stealing question papers from a computer in a confidential section of the Commission and selling them to other implicated individuals.
The revelation of the leaked exam papers caused a significant stir in Telangana, with opposition parties Congress and BJP blaming the BRS government for the leak, which adversely affected numerous unemployed individuals in the state.
The SIT has also questioned TSPSC chairman Janardhan Reddy, secretary Anita Ramachandran, and member B Linga Reddy.