UP STF arrests 6 for 'leaking' exam paper to recruit review officers

The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday, 23 June arrested six members of a gang, including a staff of a printing press, 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 exam, conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC), was held across the state on 11 February.

The state government cancelled the exam on 2 March, following reports that the paper was leaked.

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.

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.

Charges under the Uttar Pradesh Public Examination Act, 1998 and Information Technology Act have also been slapped on the arrested accused, police said.

The STF also said that during interrogation of the arrested accused, it was found that the question paper of the said examination was leaked in two ways.

First, this question paper was leaked from the examination centre itself on the day of the examination on 11 February 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.

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 said question paper was leaked was from the printing press. Sunil Raghuvanshi, an employee of the press, was involved in this, the STF said.

On 3 February, Raghuvanshi was present in the press on the pretext of repairing the machine. Upon getting an opportunity, he came out of the press with his drinking water bottle 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.

After this, it was decided among these people that on 8 February, they will gather at Komal Hotel with the candidates and solvers. The question paper will be solved by the solvers in the hotel itself and the candidates will be made to read it. Rajiv Nayan Mishra alias Rahul and his gang members had fixed Rs 12 lakh each from each candidate, they said.

On 8 February, as per the pre-planned plan, Vishal Dubey first reached Komal Hotel along with Sandeep Pandey. After this, Sunil Raghuvanshi reached there after getting 06-06 photocopies of the question paper.

Following reports of the paper leak, the Uttar Pradesh government on 2 March cancelled the preliminary exam conducted on 11 February 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.

The STF was assigned the task to investigate the matter.