The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested two more people in connection with the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak case. Mibayya and his son Janardhan, who hails from Mahabubnagar, have been arrested, taking the total number of persons arrested so far to 19, news agency IANS reported.
Mibayya allegedly paid Lavdyavath Dhakya, one of the accused already detained in the case, Rs 2 lakh for a question paper of the exam conducted by the TSPSC to recruit assistant engineers. Janardhan had appeared in the exam.
Dhakya is the husband of Renuka, a teacher who obtained question papers from prime accused Praveen Kumar, an employee in TSPSC. She had purchased the question paper for her brother, Rajeshwar Nayak, who had appeared in the AE exam. She, along with Dhakya, had sold question papers to others.
The TSPSC scam came to light on March 12, which led to the arrest of 15 accused and the cancellation of the Group 1 preliminary examination, Assistant Engineers, AEE, and DAO exams.
Praveen, who worked as an assistant section officer at TSPSC, and Rajashekar Reddy, a network administrator at ATSPSC, had allegedly stolen question papers from some exams from a computer in a confidential section of the Commission and sold them to other accused.
The SIT had last week informed the Telangana High Court that it had arrested 17 accused in the case since March 13. It also informed the court that it was making efforts to arrest another accused from New Zealand.
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The exam paper leak case created an uproar in Telangana as opposition parties Congress and BJP blamed the BRS government for the leak that affected lakhs of unemployed people in the state. The SIT has also examined TSPS chairman Janardhan Reddy, secretary Anita Ramachandran, and member B. Linga Reddy.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing money laundering charges in the case. Early this week, it questioned Praveen Kumar and Rajashekar Reddy.
The ED officials are believed to have questioned the two accused based on the information obtained from Shankara Lakshmi, in charge of the confidential section room at TSPSC. She appeared before the ED on April 11 and was grilled for over 10 hours.
Praveen and Rajasekhar stole question papers from the computer in the confidential section for various exams conducted by the TSPSC for recruitment in government departments.