Army paper leak: Police remand of two Majors extended

Major Vasant Vijay Kilari (45) and Major Thiru Murugan Thangavelu (47) are the two officers who have been held by Pune police, which is probing the paper leak.

Pune: A Pune court on Monday extended till March 20 the police custody of two Major-rank officers of the Army arrested in connection with a recruitment exam paper leak that was detected here on February 28.

Major Vasant Vijay Kilari (45) and Major Thiru Murugan Thangavelu (47) are the two officers who have been held by Pune police, which is probing the paper leak.

Public Prosecutor Premkumar Agrawal told the court of Additional Sessions Judge SR Navandar that police have found in its probe that it was decided Thangavelu would give Rs 25,00,000 to Kilari for the paper, and the latter was to give money to one more accused.
Agrawal said Kilari forwarded the paper to Thangavelu through Whatsapp and had then destroyed the data.

“Police have recovered the data with the help of experts and it is needed to investigate their involvement in the case,” the prosecution told the court, and sought further police custody.
Agrawal said police had recovered an audio clip of a conversation in Tamil between Kilari and Thangavelu, and that was being translated as part of the probe.

After hearing the arguments, Judge Navandar extended the custody of Thangavelu and Kilari till March 20.

On February 28, the Army Relation Recruitment Exam, which was to be conducted in Pune’s BEG centre and 40 other locations across the country, had to be cancelled due to the leak.
So far, seven people have been arrested in the case.