LUCKNOW: Around one and a half month after the paper leak scam of Police Constable recruitment examination, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) apprehended the main accused Rajeev Nayan Mishra (32), who hails from Prayagraj and based in Bhopal, from Noida on Wednesday.
The UP STF, probing the paper leak scam of the one of the biggest recruitment drives carried out by any state government, traced Mishra following the investigations revealing his involvement in unlocking the box containing question papers at a warehouse in Ahmedabad.
He had sought assistance from Bihar-based doctor Shubham Mandal to accomplish the task. Moreover, Mishra allegedly also bribed the transport company staff to facilitate the theft of the question papers, said the UP STF sources.
Accompanied by his associates, Mishra, the kingpin of the racket involved in paper leaks, distributed the question papers to approximately 300 candidates gathered at Shiv Mahashakti Resort in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, two days before the exam on February 15. These candidates, predominantly from Bihar, UP, and MP, each paid Rs 4 lakh to Mishra for early access to the exam papers, STF officials disclosed.
Rajeev Mishra, who holds a BTech in civil engineering from a private college in Bhopal, met Ravi Atri, another mastermind of the racket, four years ago. However, key figures like Ravi Atri, Goldy, Vikram Pahal, and their associates remain elusive, stated the STF.
So far, the UP STF have arrested 399 individuals in connection with the UP police constable examination paper leak.
The state government cancelled the examination held offline in four sessions on February 17-18, following which the STF was tasked with investigating the matter.
It was a recruitment drive held by UP Police Recruitment Board to fill over 60,000 posts of constables in UP police and over 48 lakh aspirants had appeared in the examination.
According to Additional DG, Law and Order, Amitabh Yash, Mishra was previously arrested in connection with the 2022 TET paper leak and the 2023 National Health Mission Contractual Staff Nurse recruitment exam paper leak. During interrogation, Mishra disclosed his involvement in such shady activities since his college days. He recounted collaborating with Subhash Prakash and Atul Vats, fellow students from Madhubani, Bihar, in extorting money for college admissions in Bhopal. Their fraudulent practices later extended to recruitment scams.
Further investigations revealed Mishra's association with Dr Sharad Patel, a key figure in the UP police constable paper leaking racket, who collaborated with Ravi Atri of Gautam Buddha Nagar. With Atri's assistance, Mishra conducted coaching sessions where leaked exam papers were tutored to candidates.
Moreover, Mishra also named Monu Gurjar, Rajneesh Ranjan, Monu Pandit, Gaurav, and Pramod Pathak, as his associates involved in rigging competitive examinations for lure of lucre.
