The Telangana State Public Service Commission exam paper leak case is getting more complicated. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police has found that the links of the case are far and wide. The SIT has arrested six more people, making the total number of arrests 27.
The SIT arrested two brokers and four candidates who appeared in the Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) and Assistant Engineer (AE) exams. The candidates had allegedly purchased exam papers of AEE and AE for Rs 10 lakhs each from prime accused Praveen Kumar through two middlemen. They had paid an advance of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakhs and promised to pay the remaining amount after exam results were declared.
The SIT arrested Aadi Saibab and Mudavat Shivakumar of Nagarkurnool, Ramavat Mahesh of Nagarjuna Sagar, and Ponnam Varun of Khammam district. Muralidhar Reddy of Hyderabad and Manoj Kumar of Warangal have also been arrested for selling AE and AEE question papers on behalf of Praveen Kumar.
The latest arrests were made after SIT sifted through Praveen’s social media accounts, which led to the identification of candidates who had purchased question papers. The TSPSC authorities zeroed in on candidates who scored abnormally high marks.
During the last two months, SIT had found leak of question papers of Assistant Engineer (Civil), Divisional Accounts Officer (DAO), and Group-1 Prelims. Last week, the SIT had arrested Bhagwant, who works in the office of Vikarabad Mandal Parishad Development Officer (MPDO) and his brother Ravi Kumar.
The opposition parties Congress and BJP blamed the BRS government for the leak that affected lakhs of unemployed in the state. The opposition is also demanding a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court or by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The SIT has also examined TSPS chairman Janardhan Reddy, secretary Anita Ramchandran, and member B. Linga Reddy. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing money laundering charges in the case. The SIT has reportedly identified financial transactions to the tune of Rs 33.4 lakhs in the case.
