THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime Branch probing the PSC exam fraud is gearing up for more arrests as the interrogation of the two prime accused has revealed they had more partners in crime. “We are keeping the accused list open as more people are likely to be booked,” said an officer. So far, the police have arrested five people in connection with the case. SFI leaders A N Naseem, Sivarenjith, PP Pranav, police constable Gokul and his friend Safir were the arrested. Crime Branch sources revealed that more arrests were likely in the case as the inputs obtained from grilling Pranav and Safir suggested more people were involved in the crime.
Pranav and Safir have been in the Crime Branch custody since Tuesday and their custody will end on Friday. Crime Branch sources said they won’t seek custody extension of the two.“We have got credible and valuable inputs from them. We won’t eek extension of their custody,” the officer added.
The sleuths during the interrogation also managed to confirm that the exam question paper was leaked from outside the exam hall.
“We were sure that the leak happened from outside one of the three centres where the accused had appeared for exam. Now, we are zeroing in on the centre at the University College as the leads that we have garnered so far suggest the same,” a source added. The Crime Branch took over the exam leak case after the PSC vigilance cell found out that some of the SFI leaders of the University College had fraudulently made to the rank list of the police constable recruits.
The Crime Branch probe discovered that the question paper was leaked and the answers were sent to the mobile phones of Naseem, Sivarenjith and Pranav. The mobile phones were kept outside the exam halls and the accused accessed the answers with his devices that were paired with their phones via Bluetooth.
Meanwhile, Pranav was taken to Mundakkayam to collect evidences after he told the investigators that he had thrown the mobile phone and smartwatch used to commit the fraud into Manimalayar.