11 arrested for leaking LIC question paper

Probe to decide whether Sunday exam will be cancelled or not: Officials.

In what appears to be an inter-state racket,the police have caught 11 persons for leaking the question paper of an all-India examination for the post of LICs assistant administrative officer. While six were arrested in Delhi,five were caught in Hyderabad. In both the cases,the main accused were well-educated individuals,with one of them employed as a teacher.

The police said that the LIC had outsourced the examination to Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL). They have questioned EdCIL officials on Sunday and will question them again on Monday. Anju Banerjee,the chairman and managing director of EdCIL,said that they will decide on whether or not to cancel the tests only after the investigations are over.

There were reports of similar attempts being made in Bihar,but EdCIL officials were alerted in time and security was beefed up at all centres.

Story continues below this ad

The test was conducted in 160 centres across the country on Sunday and 1.65 lakh candidates appeared for it.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police arrested six persons,including the kingpin and a supplier from Naraina on Saturday night,the police said. The main accused in Delhi was identified as Arun Parashar,a resident of Aligarh,UP,who supplied the question paper to the kingpin,Pawan Kumar,a geography graduate from Delhi University who had been arrested in 2005 for an admission racket. The accused had charged Rs 5 lakh each from candidates.

Kumar approached Inderjit,an MBA,Rahul Kumar Singh,a graduate from Mainpuri,UP,Praveen Kumar,an M Phil from Panipat,Dharamveer,a postgraduate from Mahendragarh. All four have been arrested.

The accused were in possession of the same set of question papers that matched verbatim with the original one, said Ashok Chand,the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Story continues below this ad

The police in Hyderabad on Sunday busted a similar racket and five persons were caught red-handed by the Police Commissioners Task Force,West Zone. The police apprehended them,seized question papers,six mobile phones and Rs 6,000 from their possession.

The five accused were Yogeshwar Kumar Rao alias Yogiraj,a 30-year old teacher from Nasrathpur,UP,Palvai Ashok Kumar,a driver,Beesabathuni Anna Rao,a club supervisor,Perla Srinivas,a technician,Gudla Srinivas,a sales officer,all from Andhra Pradesh.

The police said the kingpin,Yogiraj,an MA from Allahabad University,got in touch with the four others,who were earlier involved in leaking the Railway Recruitment Board exam papers,and planned the entire operation.

According to Deputy Commissioner V B Kamlasan Reddy,the accused sold each question paper for Rs 7 lakh.

Story continues below this ad

Yogiraj got the question paper from Lal Bahadur,a resident of Lucknow,who,in turn,got it from Dindayal,who works at the Noida-based press that printed the question papers. Yogiraj contacted his main agent,Palvai Ashok Kumar after coming to Hyderabad on February 25 and both contacted prospective candidates, Reddy said.