BPSC Paper Leak: Private college principal with JD(U) links arrested

PATNA: The principal of a private college in Bihar, affiliation of which expired a few years ago but continues to serve as a center for many examinations, has turned out to be a key accused in the Bihar Public Service Commission question paper leak. According to the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar police, which is probing the matter, Shakti Kumar has been arrested from Gaya district. He was the principal of an evening college of which affiliation had expired in 2018.

The college was one of the centers for BPSC civil services preliminary test held on May 8 last. The examination was, however, cancelled after one set of the question papers went viral on the social media. Kumar, who was present at the Ram Sharan Singh evening college as superintendent of the exam center, had scanned the question paper and shared it with a person called Kapil Dev on WhatsApp, said the EOU. Kapil Dev is a civil defence accounts employee who is said to have passed on the scanned copy to Pintu Yadav, the engineering graduate mastermind of the gang behind the leak, the EOU said. Efforts are on to trace Kapil Dev and Pintu Yadav, the police said.

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Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) was left red faced after it turned out that Shakti Kumar had close links with the party's parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha. Talking to reporters, Kushwaha did not deny that Shakti Kumar had held a key post in the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, which was founded and headed by him until its merger with the JD(U) last year. But "he (Shakti Kumar) will get no benefit in facing the probe," Kushwaha said. "The law shall take its own course. It must also be investigated how the college served as an exam center even after having lost its affiliation", said Kushwaha.