New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) Delhi Police's Crime Branch has busted a racket allegedly involved in the National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) examination paper leak with the arrest of five men, officials said on Wednesday.
They have been identified as Arunjay, Arun Kumar, Subhash Chand, Deepak Raghav and Govind Kumar, police said.
Arunjay was working as an assistant examination superintendent in one of the schools which was a centre for the examination, they said, adding the gang used WhatsApp for their internal communication.
Special Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Singh Yadav said on March 4, information was received by DCP Satish Kumar that exams are going to be held at Paramount School, Dwarka Sector-23, for posts of NTRO Aviator-II and Technical Assistant. It was also revealed that mastermind Arunjay will leak the papers and provide answer keys to many candidates at different centres in Delhi-NCR in lieu of around Rs 30 lakh for NTRO Aviator-II and approximately Rs.15 lakhs for Technical Assistant exams.
Using electronic and manual surveillance, persons involved in the chain of conversation and transmission of messages related to paper leak were identified and accordingly raids were conducted at Paramount International School from where accused Arunjay (37) was apprehended, he said.
During probe, his mobile phone was found containing the C-Set of question paper and he had also received answer keys for the same on his phone. While on his WhatsApp account, admit cards of many candidates were also found along with the money transfer messages to provide answer keys to the candidates, Yadav added.
"On his instance, one candidate was detained and on questioning, she disclosed that Arunjay had promised her to provide answer keys of the paper. From another examination centre located at Shakti Nagar, two more candidates were detained whom Arunjay had assured to provide answer keys. In the evening shift, two more candidates were detained whose admit cards were found in Arunjay's mobile phone," the senior police officer said.
"On enquiry from the school, it came to light that Arunjay was working as an assistant examination superintendent in the school and had access to all classrooms during the exam. After having sufficient evidence that he is involved in paper leak of NTRO technical officers vacancies, a case was registered and during the course of investigation, four other persons, identified as Arun, Deepak Raghav, Subhash Chand and Govind, were also arrested from different locations," he said.0 The officer said Arun, Raghav and Chand had lured candidates to pay money for the answer keys. The person, who provided the answer keys, is absconding and efforts are on to arrest him, he said.
Elaborating on the modus operandi of the gang, the special commissioner of police said the accused did not use traditional methods of paper leaks by spending money on acquiring examination papers by colluding with printing press owners, managers or officials but saved all the cheated money by using simple messaging mobile applications.
Earlier such crimes were usually committed in connivance with printing press officials or during transportation of papers or by bribing officials at examination centres. However, with the rise in such cases, the examination boards have beefed up their systems and put a check on such activities, he said.
"However, these accused approached the far-flung examination centres where authorities had little chance of going for checking. They did thorough research like about the head of the centre and enticed the principal and management officials of that centre with bribes.
“They knew that the papers would arrive at the centre about one or one-and-a- half hours before the commencement of examination. This time gap at their disposal before the commencement of exam was sufficient for them to take pictures of the papers and transfer it on mobile phone to distantly located academic associates, who solved those papers and forwarded answer keys to their clients using whatsApp and other messaging applications," Yadav said.
Several racketeers involved in this organised crime have been identified and necessary action is being taken against them, police said, adding the arrested accused persons are currently in judicial custody.
Eight mobile phones and other incriminating documents have been recovered from the accused’s possession, police said. PTI AMP AQS AQS