The wife of one of the accused in the TSPSC question paper leak case approached the High Court of Telangana on Monday, 20 March, alleging that her husband was being tortured in police custody.
The petitioner, Sucharita, requested the court to direct the Special Investigation Team (SIT) not to subject her husband A Raja Shekhar Reddy to third-degree methods.
Shekhar Reddy was a network administrator at TSPSC. He was terminated from his job on 15 March, after the question paper leak scam was revealed.
According to the police, he allegedly assisted the kingpin in the case, Praveen Kumar, another TSPSC employee, in getting the question paper from the computer of Shankar Laxmi, the official in charge of the confidential section.
Notice to Revanth Reddy
Meanwhile, the SIT is planning to serve a notice to Telangana Congress President A Revanth Reddy, a day after he alleged that IT Minister KT Rama Rao’s office was directly involved in the question paper leak.
“He said that he has some information regarding some 100 people being involved (from Malyala mandal, Jagtial district). So we are serving him a notice to seek that information,” SIT head and Additional Commissioner of Police (Crimes & SIT) AR Srinivas, told South First.
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SIT refutes torture charge
In her petition, Sucharita requested the court transfer the case to the CBI. She also demanded the police show the video footage of the investigation conducted so far.
The SIT was granted six days of custody of the nine accused in the case after it took over the case on 14 March from Begum Bazar police.
Sucharita has named Telangana DGP Anjani Kumar, Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari, SIT officials, and Hyderabad City DCP as respondents in her petition.
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SIT head Srinivas refuted the custodial torture charge. “Whatever she is saying about third-degree treatment is false. Why should the police torture anyone in custody,” he asked.
Meanwhile, as per reports, two of Reddy’s relatives came from abroad and appeared for the Group-1 preliminary exam for recruiting assistant engineers. The TSPSC cancelled the exam and three others on 15 March.
The police are also trying to retrieve deleted messages, especially WhatsApp chats, from the phones of the accused to track down the beneficiaries of the paper leak.
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Revanth Reddy fires a slew of questions at KTR
Revanth Reddy claimed that Minister KTR’s personal assistant Tirupati is “a shadow minister” and is the neighbour of Raja Shekhar Reddy in the Karimnagar district.
“Tirupati helped Raja Shekhar Reddy to get a job in the TSPSC. Minister KTR’s office is directly involved in the scam,” he alleged.
He demanded that the state government disclose the details of the more than 100 candidates from the Malyala mandal of Jagtial district, who had scored 103 and above in the Group-I exam.
“Mallial is the native place of the minister’s PA and accused Raja Shekhar Reddy,” Revanth Reddy claimed.
Call for transfer of case to CBI
Meanwhile, demanding that the case be investigated by the CBI or by a sitting judge, Revanth alleged that those working in the TSPSC were not eligible to write competitive exams, but the government gave some a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to write the exams.”
“More than 20 people wrote the competitive exams against the rules. A woman, identified as Madhuri, came from the US and wrote the Group-1 exam. She got the first rank. Junior assistant Rajanikanth Reddy got the fourth rank,” said Revanth Reddy.
He also demanded a detailed investigation into any role of confidential section officer Shankar Lakshmi in the case.
“Does Rama Rao know this? Were Sri Lakshmi, Praveen, Venkatadri Sridevi, Ramesh, Vasu, and Madhulatha allowed to appear for exams against the rules or not,” the Congress leader asked.
