BPSC Exam Paper Leak: Four more arrested, organised cybercrime gang busted

PATNA: The Bihar police on Sunday claimed to have busted an organised crime gang, which was behind the leak of provincial civil services exam question paper last week, with the arrest of four persons from whose possession a huge quantity of gadgets have also been seized. According to the Economic Offence Unit (EOU) of the police, which has been entrusted with the probe, the gang was headed by Anand Gaurav alias Pintu Yadav, an engineering graduate who was arrested in connection with a teachers’ recruitment scam in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh in 2015.

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An alumnus of National Institute of Technology, Yadav, apparently took to crime for quick money, and he is also wanted in a two-year old murder case in Munger district, the EOU said here in a release. While Yadav, along with other associates, was being traced, Rajesh Kumar, one of the arrested persons who is employed as a clerk in the state agriculture department, spilled the beans on him. Rajesh Kumar (39) lived in a rented house in East Patel Nagar locality of the city from where a laptop, more than 30 SIM cards of different network providers, five pen drives and 16 earphones have been seized, the EOU said.

Based on his tip-off, a house in Lohanipur locality rented by Yadav, which served as the gang’s “control room”, was also raided. Recoveries made on the premises included Rs 2.92 lakh in cash, seven walkie-talkie sets and more than 100 GPS devices. Besides, records of six bank accounts handled by Yadav were found in which more than Rs 12 lakh were deposited. All these accounts have been attached, said the EOU. Based on Rajesh Kumar's inputs, three other persons, Krishna Mohan Singh (41), who teaches at a high school, Nishikant Kumar Rai (33) and Sudhir Kumar Singh (40) have also been arrested, it said.

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Krishna Mohan Singh and Nishikant Rai resided in different localities of Patna while Sudhir Kumar Singh was a resident of Aurangabad district. Earlier, the EOU had arrested four persons in Bhojpur district where anomalies in conducting the exams at Veer Kunwar Singh College, one of the examination centres for the preliminary tests held on May 8, blew the whistle on the paper leak.

Candidates had raised an alarm when they got the question papers late though some “examinees” were allowed to solve their papers inside a closed room and permitted to carry their mobile phones along. Soon, screenshots of the question paper went viral on social media, prompting the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) to cancel the examinations within a few hours. Those arrested from Ara, the headquarters of Bhojpur district, included a BDO, who was deployed at the examination centre as a static magistrate besides the principal and two lecturers of the college.