Himachal constable paper leak: Topper was in touch with agent since December

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, May 16

The four toppers of the constable paper leak case were today produced before a Kandaghat court, which remanded them in six-day police custody till May 21. They were arrested by the Solan police from Nalagarh yesterday.

Those arrested are Parvinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Shakeel Mohammad and Dinesh Kumar. Parvinder had topped the written exam by obtaining 73 marks while Harvinder and Shakeel got 72 marks each. Dinesh had obtained 69 marks. Parvinder and Dinesh belong to the Scheduled Tribes category while Harvinder and Shakeel are from the OBC.

The interrogation of the four youths has revealed that the scam had been taking shape since December when the physical standard examination was under way. This has again brought the working of the police department under the scanner as it appears the conspiracy to leak the paper was hatched in advance.

The Special Investigation Team probing the paper leak case was directed to examine the call details of March 25 and 26 of the candidates who had obtained 65 plus marks in the written exam out of 80.

SP, Solan, Virender Sharma said middleman Rajbir of Haryana had befriended Parvinder on Facebook page where he offered to help him in the exam. Parvinder was asked to get together 10 youths, who would be charged Rs 5 lakh each for qualifying the exam in December while the physical standard exam was underway.

He, however, managed to bring only three youths after they qualified the physical standard exam. They were directed to come to Zirakpur on March 26, a day before the written exam. After reaching there, they were directed to come to Ambala and then Karnal and finally to Panipat. They were directed to use only one cellphone following which only Parvinder carried his cellphone.

They were directed to park their car in a secured location and then taken to a hotel from where they were shared the question paper and locked in a room for hours. They returned to Solan where the written exam was to be held the next day.

After declaration of the result on April 5, Rajbir demanded Rs 5 lakh but the youths said they would give the money after the final selection.

In another revelation, of the three accused arrested in Bilaspur district by SIT yesterday, a middleman has confessed to having helped a candidate from Arki too. The police are probing his involvement and he would be arrested soon, said sources in the police department.

Candidates appearing from Arki had sounded the alarm in mid-April when a 3.27-minute chat among some candidates had gone viral where a conversation on shelling out Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for obtaining question paper was made public. The Arki police had arrested six persons in the case after registering an FIR on April 17.

Rs 5 lakh demanded by middleman

• Middleman Rajbir of Haryana had befriended Parvinder through his Facebook account in December
• He was asked to bring 10 more youths, who would be charged Rs 5 lakh
• He, however, managed to rope in three youths
• Parvinder topped the written exam by obtaining 73 marks out of 80
• After result, Rajbir demanded Rs 5 lakh but the youths said they would give the money after the selection

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