KALABURAGI: Kalaburagi police have busted a group allegedly involved in the leaking of police constable recruitment test question papers and arrested three men. The test was held across the state last Sunday.
Mallanna Bidanoor, Kashinath Pujari and Shivakumar were nabbed by the police late on Monday and produced before the Third Additional JMFC Court on Tuesday evening. They were remanded in police custody for five days.
Inspector General of Police (North East Range) Suresh K Mohammed told Express that Kashinath and Mallanna are teachers at a private school in Kalaburagi. Shivakumar helped them supply the leaked question papers to some candidates.
Mohammed said the police got a tip about the leak while the test was in progress. They got to work immediately and arrested Kashinath, who is said to have spilled the beans on his accomplices.
The IGP said in the leaked question papers, 77 questions tallied with the actual questions in the CET papers while six others were “similar” to the actual ones. Police said the accused have confessed that Marutesh, a man from Bengaluru, had leaked the questions to Mallanna.
Mohammed said Assistant Superintendent of Police Santosh Babu, who is an IAS officer, has been entrusted with the investigation. He has to find the magnitude of the problem, including in which other places the papers were leaked and how many people were involved.
Around 1.7 lakh candidates appeared for the examinations, which were held across 23 districts. It is up to the IGP (Training and Recruitment) to decide on holding fresh exams, Mohammed said. As of now, the police believe that at least 12 more people across the state were involved.