4 more held in T’gana paper leak case: Cops

With the latest arrests, the total number of people arrested in the Telangana Public Service Commission question paper leak case has touched 35

The Hyderabad police’s special investigation team probing the Telangana Public Service Commission question paper leak case on Wednesday announced the arrest of four more persons in connection with the case that came to fore in March, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The Hyderabad police’s special investigation team is probing the Telangana Public Service Commission question paper leak case. (PTI)

The officials identified the arrested accused as Atla Suchitra, wife of Atla Rajasekhar Reddy who is accused no. 2 (A-2) and had worked as in-charge of TSPSC’s networking wing on outsourcing basis and Lavudya Shanti, wife of L Rajeshwar Naik who is accused no. 5 (A-5), besides candidates Ramavath Dattu and Rahul Kumar, who had bought the question papers paying huge amounts.

“With the latest arrests, the total number of people arrested in the TSPSC question paper leak case has touched 35,” a police official familiar with the development said on anonymity.

While Sucharita and Shanti were found to have taken the divisional accounts officer recruitment test after obtaining the question papers from their husbands, Rahul and Dattu had written assistant engineer (AE) recruitment examination after buying the question papers from the other accused in the case, L Renuka and L Dhakya Nayak, who are presently in the judicial remand.

“The latest arrests were made based on the call data obtained from the mobile phones of the accused and other technical evidence. All the four arrested have been remanded to judicial custody for two weeks,” the police official quoted above said.

On March 13, the Hyderabad police had announced the TSPSC paper leal case with the arrest of nine people. Subsequently, the TSPSC cancelled the examinations for Group-I, assistant engineers, veterinary assistant surgeons, divisional accounts officer etc, after the case was entrusted to the SIT.

As the investigation progressed, the SIT authorities arrested many others connected with the case. They also questioned TSPSC chairman B Janardhan Reddy, senior IAS officer-cum-TSPSC secretary Anitha Ramachandran and others including members of the commission.

Cases were booked against the accused under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code, besides Section 66 (b) (c) and 70 of the Information Technology Act and Section 8 of Prevention of Examinations Malpractices Act.