RAS paper leak mastermind dies under suspicious circumstances; family alleges murder

JAIPUR: The alleged mastermind of the Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) 2013 exam paper leak died under suspicious circumstances while being shifted from to Jaipur from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, police said on Tuesday. Amrit Lal Meena, 55, was arrested in the paper leak case in July 2014 along with other accused by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police.

A college lecturer in Karauli, he was later terminated from service. SHO of Nadauti police station in Rajasthan's Karauli district, Veer Singh, said Meena's family members were informed by one R K Singh that he was admitted to a hospital in Varanasi's Sigra area.

While they were shifting him to Jaipur in an ambulance, Meena died near Agra on August 24. "The family members took him to the district hospital in Hindaun (in Karauli), where he was declared dead. A postmortem was conducted by a medical board the same day," he said.

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The SHO said that the family has lodged a case of murder at Nadoti police station, alleging that Meena was poisoned. The FIR was registered under 'zero number' and transferred to the Sigra police station in Varanasi for investigation. R K Singh was earlier arrested for his role in the paper leak case.

It was alleged that he leaked the paper to Meena, who then sold it to several candidates for lakhs of rupees. The RAS-2013 exam conducted by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission was scrapped after an SOG probe revealed that around 20 of the top 50 selected candidates, including Meena's wife and associates, had benefited from the leak.