NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD, FEB 27
The question paper of an all-India examination for the post of assistant administrative officer of LIC was on Sunday leaked in the national capital and Hyderabad ahead of the test following which police arrested 11 people including a high school teacher of Uttar Pradesh and four job aspirants.
Four candidates allegedly bought the question papers for the test for LIC’s office cadre post from Pawan Kumar, a 33-year-old Geography graduate from Delhi University and Arjun (25).
Terming the incident as unfortunate, Anju Banerjee, Chairman and Managing Director of Educational Consultants India Limited (EDCIL), which is conducting the exams for LIC, told PTI they will decide on whether to cancel the tests after police investigations are over.
The incident came to light after Delhi Police’s crime branch got hold of the copies of two sets of question papers for both morning and afternoon sessions last evening and arrested Kumar from Naraina where a raid was conducted.
Later, Arjun and four candidates were also arrested and a case of cheating was registered.
In Hyderabad, sleuths of Commissioner’s Task Force (West Zone) nabbed five persons in the early hours after raiding a house in Gandhi Nagar in the city and seized question papers, six mobile phones and Rs 6,000 cash from their possession.
Task Force Deputy Commissioner of Police V B Kamalasan Reddy said the arrested were Yogeshwar Kumar Rao alias Yogiraj, a high school teacher from Ghazipur, Palvai Ashok Kumar, B Anna Rao, Perla Srinivas and Gudla Srinivas (all agents from Andhra Pradesh), were charging Rs 7 lakh from each candidate for providing the leaked question paper.
Prime accused Yogiraj got the question paper from his childhood friend Lal Bahadur, a resident of Lucknow on February 23 and Bahadur got it from his relative Dindayal, a native of Noida who is working in a printing press, he said.
The test is being conducted in two sessions in 160 centres across the country and 1.65 lakh candidates are appearing for the test. In Delhi, there are 16 centres.
“The question papers have been leaked. We got the copies of the question papers and when we tallied these copies with the original question paper, they were found to be the same,” Ashok Chand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), told reporters in Delhi.
Chand said they went to three centres in Delhi and one in Chandigarh to crosscheck whether the question papers were genuine. The candidates who allegedly benefited by the leakage have been identified as Inderjit, Rahul Kumar, Praveen and Dharamvir.
“Pawan had appeared for Civil Services examination earlier but failed. He is in the trade since 2005. He was earlier arrested for impersonation in Delhi Pre-Medical Entrance Test in 2005,” Chand said.
Three suspected candidates were to appear for the test in Delhi while one was to appear in Chandigarh. “We recovered the question papers and found that they tallied with the original ones. The candidates are being interrogated. They are likely to be arrested soon,” Chand said.
The candidates in Delhi were to appear for the test in three Kendriya Vidyalayas in Andrews Ganj, R K Puram and Jankapuri, he said.
Investigators are now trying to locate a man who gave the papers to Kumar for selling. “He is one of the modules of the gang,” Chand said.
An LIC spokesperson said the entire examination process is being conducted by EDCIL, a public sector company, under the Human Resources Development Ministry.
“This contract has been given to EDCIL through an open tendering process. We have sought a detailed report from EDCIL,” the spokesperson said.
Banerjee said she had asked EDCIL’s vigilance wing to seize all papers soon after the exams are over this evening and seal it.
“We are waiting for the police investigations to be over. Right now we are not canceling the examinations. The culprits, even if they are from EDCIL, will be caught,” she said.
Asked whether EDCIL employees could be behind the leakage, a senior police official did not rule it out and said all angles are being investigated.
DCP Reddy said that Yogiraj got the question paper from the press where it was printed and passed on them to his agents. The agents established contact with the prospective candidates who were appearing the examinations by going to coaching centres.
“We tallied the seized question paper of an all-India examination for the post of AAO of LIC with the original question paper with the help of Shaik Suleman, Deputy General Manager, EDCIL (India) Ltd, Noida, who is the in-charge for conducting the exam in Hyderabad and they were found to be the same,” Reddy said.
The arrested accused persons along with seized material were handed over to the Central Crime Station (a wing of Hyderabad Police) for further action, Reddy said.
