Patna: Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit (EOU) has arrested a technical assistant at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai in connection with the alleged Assistant Education Development Officer (AEDO) recruitment examination paper leak case.
The accused, Roshan Kumar, has allegedly been involved in leaking the answer key before the examination and circulating it to candidates. He is a resident of Kankariya village in Bihar's Nalanda district.
Acting on a tip off, a three-member EOU team travelled from Patna to Mumbai on Monday and arrested Kumar from the BARC premises with the assistance of the local police. He was subsequently produced before a Mumbai court.
After obtaining transit remand from the court concerned, the EOU is bringing Kumar to Patna for further interrogation. The investigating agency has already prepared a questionnaire for his questioning on Thursday and hopes the interrogation will lead to several new revelations related to the alleged paper leak case.
The investigation revealed that Kumar was present at the Sohsarai examination centre in Nalanda on April 17, the day of the AEDO examination.
According to the investigation, he possessed the answer keys before the examination began. He handed them over to Kunal, the husband of candidate Shweta Kumari.
Kunal then passed the answer keys to Chandan Kumar and Rahul Kumar, employees of the biometric agency, and instructed them to deliver them to Shweta Kumari, who was seated in examination room number 25 at the centre.
The investigation further revealed that Kumar arrived at the examination centre wearing a T shirt bearing the logo of a company that had installed jammer systems, allegedly to avoid suspicion.
Staff at the examination centre caught Kunal, Chandan and Rahul red handed. The police were subsequently informed and the matter came to light.
The AEDO recruitment examination was conducted in nine phases between April 14 and 21 this year. The entire examination was cancelled after allegations of paper leaks and cheating through Bluetooth devices surfaced, an investigating officer told this reporter.
The recruitment drive was conducted for 935 posts, for which around 11 lakh candidates had applied. FIRs have been registered in Munger, Nalanda, Gaya, Begusarai, Vaishali and Samastipur districts in connection with the alleged question paper leak. More than three dozen people have been arrested so far, EOU officials claimed.
The arrest of the BARC employee has indicated the interstate links of gangs involved in question paper leaks. Nalanda, Nawada, Sheikhpura and other adjoining districts are said to be hubs of rackets involved in question paper leaks.