Three people arrested for UPTET paper leak

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Three people have been arrested in connection with Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (UPTET) question paper leakage in Shamli, police said on Monday.

The UPTET examination, scheduled to be held on Sunday, was cancelled following the leakage of its question paper, Additional Director General Law and Order Prashant Kumar announced shortly before the exam was to begin.

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According to Superintendent of Police Sukirti Madhav Mishra, Dharmendra, Manish and Ravi were arrested and one other person, who is absconding and is accused of being involved in the case, has been booked. Police said a search is on to nab him. A car, 50 photocopies of the question paper and Rs 17,000 were recovered from the three accused, they said.

During interrogation, they revealed that they had been involved in 60 such cases and received Rs 50,000 each for solving papers, police said. A cases has been registered against the four accused under various sections 420, 467 and 471 of the the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Shamli, they said.

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Earlier, as many as 23 persons last night using technical and other intelligence from different cities of UP. This includes four from Lucknow, 13 from Prayagraj, three by the Meerut STF and one from Kaushambi district.

"The photocopy of the question paper was obtained from them, which was shared with the government. And it came to light that it is the same set of question papers as that of the examination,” Kumar said.

The officer said the matter will be probed by the UP STF, and persons or organisations involved in the leak will not be spared. The question paper of the examination had not reached the examination centres till Sunday morning. Items seized from accused included mobile phones and photocopy of question papers.