WARANGAL: In a dramatic turn of events, State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Bandi Sanjay Kumar was arrested late on Tuesday at his residence in Karimnagar for allegedly “hatching a conspiracy to circulate question papers of the ongoing SSC exams and defame the government”. He was produced on Wednesday evening before First Class Magistrate R Anitha, who remanded him to judicial custody till April 19. Later, Sanjay was shifted to a Karimnagar jail from Warangal.
The police named the Karimnagar MP as accused No. 1 and booked him under Sections 120(B), 420, 447, 505 (1)(b) of the IPC, Section 4 (a), 6r/w 9 of TS Public Examination (Prevention of Malpractices) Act, 1997 and Section 66-D of the IT Act. All these are non-bailable provisions that entail three to seven years of imprisonment. Besides Sanjay, the cops named nine others as accused including a minor boy in the paper leak case.
BJP cadre took to the streets as news of Sanjay’s arrest spread like wildfire. The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) termed the MP the mastermind behind the question paper leaks, leading to tension, especially in the Warangal district. In Hyderabad, BJP leaders filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court, objecting to the manner in which he was arrested without prior notice. The plea will come up for hearing on Thursday. In the national capital, BJP MPs submitted a privilege motion notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker.
The developments came after a minor boy photocopied the Hindi question paper from a student who was taking the exam at the ZP High School at Kamalapur in Hanamkonda district on Tuesday. A copy of the question paper found its way into WhatsApp groups. The A2, Boora Prashanth, forwarded the same to Sanjay and other BJP leaders and journalists. According to the police, WhatsApp chats and calls between Sanjay and Prashanth from Monday onwards provided them with evidence that both of them hatched a conspiracy.
The remand report stated that this was 'a case of pre-planned and evil designed criminal conspiracy’, with an intention to create rumours and provoke a breach of peace and to show it as the failure of the government to prevent the paper leak. It was intended to defame the elected government, the report said.
“As per the plan of the accused, A-1 (Bandi Sanjay) gave direction to A-2 (Prashanth) to exploit the situation of the leak of the Telugu question paper on Monday. They decided to leak the Hindi question paper on Tuesday and circulate the same on social media to defame the government. This was also discussed in the chat with Manoj, a BJP worker. Local Kamalapur students were told to go to the examination centres and obtain a photocopy of the question paper on their mobile phones, and put them on different WhatsApp groups for circulation to create fear among students and their parents, thereby defame the government,” the remand report said.
Briefing the media on Wednesday evening, Warangal Commissioner of Police AV Ranganath said Bandi Sanjay was named A-1 as he had tried to tarnish the image of the government and create confusion and a sense of insecurity among parents and students.“It was not an isolated case. It was a game plan to defame the government,” the top cop said.
He explained that they had retrieved WhatsApp chats between the BJP State chief and Prashant and found that the former spoke to the media on the Hindi question paper leak based on information from his WhatsApp chats.“Prashant tried to project it as a leak at the behest of Bandi Sanjay,” he added.
Though a minor boy photocopied the question paper at 9.45 am on Tuesday, Prashanth created a message and tried to project that the paper was leaked at 9.30 itself, the CP said.
Bandi has not handed over his phone, says CP
The Warangal Police Commissioner said that they wanted Bandi Sanjay Kumar to hand over his mobile, but the latter said that the phone was not available. “If he had nothing to do with the case, he would have given his mobile phone to the police,” the CP said and added that even if Sanjay did not give his mobile number, the WhatsApp chats and call data would be retrieved with the help of service providers.
When asked whether the police would register a case for merely receiving the WhatsApp message, the CP said that the accused Prashanth sent the question paper to several BJP leaders and journalists in Hyderabad. “He even sent the message to BJP MLA Eatala Rajender. We did not register any case against Rajender. As per the WhatsApp chats between Sanjay and Prashanth, it was clearly known that there was an intention to tarnish the image of the government,” the CP said.
Asked when a minor photocopied the question paper and another person circulated the same on WhatsApp groups, how come Bandi Sanjay was named A-1 in the case, Ranganath said: “It does not matter who started the process first. The A-1 will be decided by the magnitude and gravity of the offence. If a person purchases a knife he will not become A-1. A person who commits a murder with that knife will become A-1 in the case,” Ranganath explained. He also clarified that the Warangal police were not targeting only BJP leaders.
Asked whether the police suspected the role of Bandi Sanjay in the TSPSC paper leak case too, Ranganath said that the Warangal police confined itself to the investigation into the SSC paper leak case. He, however, added that if Bandi handed over his mobile phone, then the police might get information on other cases.
Charges against Bandi
The MP gave directions to Prashanth, a social media handler, to exploit the leak of SSC Telugu paper
As part of the conspiracy, Prashanth spoke to Sanjay over the phone several times regarding the criminal plan of copying the question papers and circulating them on social media.
Prashanth exploited the situation and got a photocopy of the Hindi question paper.
Analysis of call details and WhatsApp chats of all the accused shows that the accused were involved in a conspiracy, said police