Conduit bares names of 25 beneficiaries

Amit Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 6

In a major development in the UT teachers’ recruitment scam in which an FIR was registered in July this year, the conduit arrested by the Chandigarh Police has revealed the name of 25 beneficiaries who had purchased the question paper of the JBT exam and were taken to Lucknow to appear for the test. 

The conduit, Bajinder Nain of Kami village in Sonepat, was arrested on November 2. 

His name was revealed by one of the main conduits, Dinesh Kumar Yadav, who was arrested by the Punjab Vigilance. Sources in the special investigation team (SIT) said Nain had confessed to his crime and had revealed the names of 25 candidates who were among the beneficiaries.

Nain also arranged a bus to take all candidates to Lucknow to appear for the exam where they submitted their original certificates.

Sources said the 25 candidates would soon be called for questioning. 

Efforts are being made to identify the mastermind, known by several names, including Mithlesh Pandey, alias Guru ji, alias Master ji, who provided the leaked question papers to numerous candidates in Lucknow. “Police teams went to neighbouring states to trace the links of the mastermind, whose real identity is still a mystery,” the sources said.

More candidates are believed to have benefited from the paper leak, but are yet to be identified.

“Many conduits were involved in the scam, who roped in candidates and sold the question paper to them,” said the sources.

The UT had registered a case in the matter on the basis of a report of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau that had revealed that the question paper was sold to the candidates for Rs 7 lakh a few days prior to the written test conducted for hiring 1,150 JBT and TGT teachers in Chandigarh in January and February 2015.