Hyderabad: Five years RI, Rs. 7.8 lakh fine awarded to ten in Railway recruitment paper leak case

The CBI had registered the case on June 15, 2010 against the public servants and private persons on allegations of question paper leakage prior to examination for the posts of Assistant Loco Pilot and Assistant Station Master which was scheduled to be conducted by Railway Recruitment Board on June 6, 2010.

Hyderabad: The Principal Special Judge for CBI cases, Hyderabad, has sentenced then Chairman, Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai and then CEO, Assan-Mangalore Rail Development Corporation and 8 other accused in a CBI case to Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) of 5 years along with a total fine of Rs. 7,87,000 in a case related to paper leakage of examination conducted by Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai for the posts of Assistant Station Master and Assistant Loco Pilot in 2010.

Details of sentence include, Satendra Mohan Sharma, then Chairman, Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of Rs. 1,75,000; A K Jagannadham, then Chief Executive Officer, Assan-Manglore Rail Development Corporation to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of Rs.1,31,000. Other convicted accused, appointed as agents to lure aspirants including Jagannadham Shareen Kumar; Jagannadham Ramesh; Jagannadham Tirupathaiah and Vivek Bharadwaj, were sentenced to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of Rs. 50,000 each; P. Ashok Kumar, Mandarama Seshu Narayana Murthy and Shrirama Vijay Shankar to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of Rs.75,000 each; and Srujan Jagannadham to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of Rs.56,000.

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The CBI had registered the case on June 15, 2010 against the public servants and private persons on allegations of question paper leakage prior to examination for the posts of Assistant Loco Pilot and Assistant Station Master which was scheduled to be conducted by Railway Recruitment Board on June 6, 2010.

It was alleged that the public servants Satendra Mohan Sharma, Chairman, Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai and A.K.Jagannadham, CEO, Assan-Mangalore Rail Development Corporation during the year 2010 entered into a conspiracy with private persons to leak out the said question papers through agents on payment of money between Rs.3.5 and Rs.4 lakhs (approx).

In pursuance of the said conspiracy convicted accused who were appointed as agents, lured several aspirants across the country and collected various amounts ranging between Rs.5,000 to Rs.1,50,000 (approx) and Original Qualification Certificates from about 193 aspirants.

Subsequently, the aspirants were taken to Goa, Sholapur and Nagpur where they were tutored with leaked question papers. Several genuine aspirants and also Indian Railways was cheated for pecuniary gain.

CBI had conducted searches at the official and residential premises of accused which also led to recovery of cash of Rs.36.9 lakh (approx.). During investigation, 15 accused were arrested who were later enlarged on bail.

After thorough investigation, CBI filed chargesheet against 15 accused in the case on September 13, 2010. The Court after trial, found the convicted accused guilty and sentenced them. Four accused were acquitted, while trial against one accused was abetted due to his death.