BHUBANESWAR: Arrest of the mastermind in the question paper leak of junior engineer (civil) main written examination has brought to fore the sensational workings of a pan-Indian racket that carried out similar breaches in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar before being stopped in its tracks in Odisha by an alert Balasore police.
The police busted the gang and arrested eight persons including Vishal Chaurasia, brain behind the racket. He along with his associates had eyes in printing presses across states where the question papers were being published.
Using the associates, Chaurasia allegedly leaked question paper for the examination conducted by Central Staff Selection Commission during 2013-2014 for recruitment of sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors of Central Police Organisation (CPO). He had caught hold of the question papers from a printing press in Allahabad. The 35-year-old native of Bihar, currently posted at Rural Works Department Advance Planning Division-II in Patna, was arrested in that case by Crime Branch of Delhi Police.
His close associate Bijendra Kumar was earlier held in connection with question paper leak of Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission during 2013-14 and Bihar Public Service Commission in 2022, said Balasore SP Sagarika Nath, under whose supervision the entire operation was carried out.
In the Balasore case, as per initial investigation, the question paper for JE civil main written examination by Odisha Staff Selection Commission was leaked from a printing press in Kolkata where another member of the gang, Virendra Singh was employed as a helper. Nath said, Singh’s brother and Chaurasia knew each other and it was the former who had introduced his sibling to the mastermind. Singh and Chaurasia were in contact since the last two months which was established by the call details records.
She said, Chaurasia received confirmation on July 11 that question papers of JE (civil) main written examination were being printed in the press and approached Bijendra to take the plan forward.
However, preliminary investigation suggests no transaction took place between the accused and the candidates of JE (civil) main as the former was nabbed hours before the examination.
Balasore police has seized Rs 1 lakh from Singh which was paid by Chaurasia as advance for leaking the question paper. The bank accounts of the accused traced so far have been frozen till further investigation and the property registered in the name of each of them is being identified, said Nath. Out of the 17 accused arrested so far, six are from Bihar, nine from Odisha and one each from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Of them, one is a 29-year-old woman from Odisha. The examination was conducted on July 16 but was cancelled by OSSC after the scam surfaced.