TSPSC paper leak: K T Rama Rao issues legal notice to Telangana Congress, BJP leaders

HYDERABAD: BRS leader and IT Minister of Telangana K T Rama Rao on Thursday said he was issuing legal notices to state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy for making "false and baseless allegations" against him in the state public service commission (TSPSC) paper leak issue.

He said the legal notices were being issued to them, as they sought to defame the BRS government by dragging his name into the paper leak issue. The BJP and Congress leaders were making allegations against him and the state government, not knowing that the public service commission was an autonomous body, a release from Rama Rao's office quoted him as saying. "It only shows their ignorance."

The public service commission had been set up to conduct the recruitment process independently but Sanjay Kumar and Revanth Reddy were seeking to portray the paper leak as an issue happening within the ambit of the government, Rama Rao, son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, alleged. He also claimed that the "misinformation campaign being carried out by Congress and BJP" was part of a conspiracy to stall the recruitment process undertaken by the Commission.

The Congress on Wednesday urged Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to "prosecute Rama Rao as there are allegations that employees of his department have played a key role in this paper leak". Alleging that there have been certain irregularities in the recruitment process, BJP's Sanjay Kumar had earlier sought the removal of Rama Rao from the state cabinet.

Twelve people, including three employees of TSPSC, a contract employee of the Commission, two candidates and a police constable, have been arrested since March 13 over their alleged involvement in the data breach -- for stealing and leaking the question papers of TSPSC's Assistant Engineer (Civil) examination, among other exams.

The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) on March 15 cancelled the Assistant Engineers (AE) exam held on March 5, following allegations that the question paper had been leaked. Amid protests by opposition parties and students' groups over the alleged question paper leak, the Commission on March 17 cancelled the Group-I preliminary exam and two other tests as well.