Question paper leak: Hyderabad police arrest nine persons including two from TSPSC

Hyderabad police seized four hard drives, three laptops and eight mobile phones from their possession

Hyderabad: Nine persons including two from Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC), who were allegedly involved in leaking Assistant Engineer (Civil) recruitment exam question paper of TSPSC, were arrested by the Hyderabad police on Monday. The police seized four hard drives, three laptops and eight mobile phones from their possession.

The arrested persons are P Praveen Kumar (32) Assistant Section Officer (ASO) at TSPSC, A Raja Sekhar (35), network administrator at TSPSC, Renuka (35) a school teacher, L Dhakya (38) a technical assistant, K Rajeshwar (33), K Neelesh Nayak (28), P Gopal Nayak (29), K Srinivas (30) and K Rajendra Nayak (31).

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DCP, (southwest) Kiran Kareh said that the ASO from TSPSC, Praveen Kumar contacted Raja Sekhar who being a Network Administrator had full knowledge of the computer systems and networks of the TSPSC office in Nampally.

“Praveen, who works at TSPSC since 2017 contacted Raja Sekhar for the question paper of Assistant Engineer (Civil) and both of them managed to get the paper from the confidential section of the TSPSC by hacking into a computer. They transferred the question paper into a pen-drive from the computer and later handed it over to Renuka and her husband Dhakya, who paid them Rs 5 lakh initially on March 2 and another Rs 5 lakh on March 6,” said DCP (Southwest) Kiran Khare.

Rajeshwar Nayak, a relative of Dhakya, who came to know about the exam paper through Renuka and Dhakya contacted Neelesh and Gopal, who appearing for the exam and discussed on the possibility of striking a deal for the leaked exam question paper.

“After fixing the deal for Rs 13.5 lakh, Rajeshwar and Dhakya handed over the question paper to Neelesh and Gopal who appeared for the exam. Both Srinivas, a constable working at Medchal police station and Rajendra had helped the candidates,” said the official.

The police invoked Sections 409,420,120 (B) IPC and Section 66 (b) (c) and 70 IT Act, Section 8 of Prevention of Examinations Malpractices Act against the suspects.

The police seized the computer systems and are sending it to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for further analysis. The police are also probing if any other question papers were downloaded and leaked by the gang.

DCP Task Force, P Radha Kishan Rao, said Renuka and Praveen know each other for the last few years and were regularly in touch. The police produced all the suspects before the court and have remanded.