Key accused among three more arrested

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, May 17

In a big catch, Punjab Vigilance Bureau sleuths arrested one of the key accused, Sanjay Kumar Shrivastava, alias Guruji, alias Mithlesh Pandey (37), along with two other accused in the paper leak scam here today. 

Nageshwar Rao, Director, Vigilance Bureau, said along with Guruji from Lucknow, two other accused,  Anup Kumar and Shiv Bahadur Singh, from Varanasi had been arrested in the scam. The Vigilance Flying Squad I team had recently brought the mastermind, Shailesh Kumar, of Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, on a production warrant from Hyderabad. 

“With the arrest of the main accused, including Guruji and Shailesh Kumar, all missing links have now been plugged in the case,” said Rao, adding that so far 85 accused, including 55 candidates-cum-conduits, had already been arrested. 

“Now, seven accused have been left, who are at large,” said Rao.

The Punjab Government had conducted recruitment tests for posts of Assistant Corporation Engineer (Civil), Assistant Municipal Engineer (Civil) and Sub-Divisional Engineer (Civil) in the Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayat and Improvement Trust on November 8 and November 15, 2015. Rao said the matter of paper leak for these recruitments was reported and after preliminary investigations, the Vigilance Bureau had registered a case on April 6 last year. During the investigation, similar cases of paper leak for the examination of Punsup and PUDA also came to the fore. The police said the gang was involved in leaking question papers for various senior-level posts, including SDO and JE, of different departments, including Punsup, PUDA, Local Bodies and Irrigation. 

The police said the gang used to charge a whopping amount, ranging between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh, from each candidate and then take them to Nazafgarh or Lucknow where the candidates were given the question paper along with answers for the exams.

“After leaking the question papers, Guruji, who has done MBA and a diploma in mechanical engineering, also helped the candidates in their exam preparation at Lucknow. The candidates were taken to Nazafgarh or Lucknow for the purpose,” said Rao. 

On the modus operandi, Rao said the gang members had tied up with printing presses, where question papers were being published, and bought the papers from there. 

“Two such presses at Delhi and Agra were under the scanner of the police. We have identified the accused and teams have been dispatched to nab them,” said Rao. 

The trio was produced before the court today. The court remanded Guruji in five-day police custody and Anup Kumar and Shiv Bahadur Singh in three-day police custody.