Paper leak mastermind held

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested the mastermind in their departmental exam paper leak case. They said that Amar Singh, an MBA graduate from Delhi, had leaked the paper through his sources at the printing press. A total of 27 people have been arrested so far in this case.

Singh is said to be an associate of paper leak kingpins, Ranjit Don and his aide Dr Rajeev Babu. The Delhi Police also arrested one Gorakhnath in connection with the case. An interstate gang is involved in almost all major paper leaks in Delhi and other parts of the country. It is suspected to have leaked Vyapam (Madhya Pradesh exam board), LIC and SSC exam papers as well, the police said.

The latest revelation, however, has put a question mark on the safety standards maintained by government agencies so far as recruitment examination papers are concerned. Ironically, the authorized printing presses operate under heavy surveillance. Now, the Delhi Police are planning to write to the authorities concerned to beef up security at these printing presses.

Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (crime), told TOI that a team led by additional CP Ashok Chand and ACP KPS Malhotra have arrested 27 people, including the chief controller of North Central Railway, Agra zone and another %suspended engineer in this operation. Earlier, constable Vikas, posted with the 7th battalion of Delhi Armed Police, was arrested in this case.

"Investigation revealed that the Delhi-NCR module behind leaking the papers was divided into three sub-modules-one based at Najafgarh, second at Sonepat/Rohtak and the third one at Rewari. A total of 18 people were arrested from the Sonepat/Rohtak and Najafgarh sub-modules. Subsequently, four more including, the chief controller of North Central Railway, a suspended railway engineer and a human rights activist, were also arrested. Then two from the Rewari sub-module were nabbed," Yadav said.

The investigation in Rewari led to the police to the main module and a person based in Bihar. The police teams began to trace the person who brought the question papers from Bihar to Rewari and arrested one Vikas Chander Bose.

"Bose revealed Amar Singh's name as the mastermind of this racket after which a team led by DCP Bhisham Singh and ACP Malhotra began to trace Singh's whereabouts. He was finally apprehended form Minto Road following a tip-off," Chand said.

Singh told the police he had got the paper through Gorakhnath who worked at the printing press. Gorakhnath was apprehended the same day. He was employed in a section at the press where the question papers were being cut and sorted out. He managed to smuggle the paper out of the press.

The money being exchanged ranged from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 crore, the police said. While the candidates were paying anything between Rs 5 and Rs 6 lakh for procuring the question paper, a major chunk-Rs 2crore-Rs 10 crore- was going to Singh and his superiors for each paper.

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