CHENNAI/CUDDALORE: The CB-CID police on Saturday arrested three among the first 100 rank holders in the Group 4 exam conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) last year and a middleman. Investigation revealed that T Venkatramanan (38) of Avadi in Chennai allegedly worked as a middleman between candidates and the staff who cleared the papers. Others who were arrested — M Thiruvelmurugan (31) of Thiruvadanai in Ramanathapuram district, R Rajasekar (26) of Panruti in Cuddalore district and M Khalesha (29) of Avadi -- had scored high marks in the exam allegedly through foul play.
Earlier, the TNPSC had filed a complaint with Director General of Police J K Tripathy about a suspicion that close to 99 candidates indulged in malpractice to clear the Group-IV examination. Tripathy ordered a probe and on Friday, CB-CID DGP M S Jaffar Sait reviewed the case and a special team was deployed to probe the case across all districts.
Official sources said three persons from Panruti in Cuddalore district — Rajasekhar, Shivaraj of Iyyanarkoil street and Srinivasan of Pudupettai — had approached a broker with an aim to clear group IV exams. The three candidates who sat for the tests at Rameswaram and Keelakarai cleared the exams. However, later it was found that the three had indulged in malpractice. A team headed by inspector Deepa arrested Rajasekhar (26) a BE (Mechanical) graduate, while the other two went absconding.
Meanwhile, the CB-CID officials in Cuddalore also held an inquiry with one M Mahalakshmi from Virudhachalam who approached a broker for clear the Group IV exam. Although Mahalakshmi took her test in Rameswaram, she had not used the pen given to her by the broker, instead had chosen to write with a pen she had brought. As Mahalakshmi did not clear the exam, she got a partial amount back from the broker, the police sources said adding that investigations were underway to trace the broker.
One arrested for paper leak
In a similar case, one Thavamani from Patharakottai near Panruti, who had murder charges against him, was arrested in connection with TNPSC question paper leak. Since both the cases have a Panruti connection, officials are working to trace the persons linked to the scam.
