TSPSC paper leak: SIT to question all 121 candidates who scored over 100 in Group-1 prelims

Meanwhile, 14 people, including four TSPSC employees and a former outsourcing worker, have been arrested in the case so far.

While several local media reports claimed that a 15th accused — Tirupataiah, a native of Gandeed mandal in the Mahabubnagar district — was arrested on Monday for allegedly purchasing the question paper of the AE entrance exam, the cops denied his arrest so far.

“Even though Tirupatiaiah is a suspect, he has not been arrested yet,” said Srinivas.

Key accused grilled for second day

As per the cops, TSPSC employees — kingpin Praveen Kumar and network admin Rajashekar Reddy — along with Lavdyavath Dhakya (husband of accused teacher Renuka and technical assistant in the Vikarabad RD department) and Rajender Nayak (a mason) were brought to the SIT office from CCS office for questioning for the second day.

“Among other things, we are trying to establish how many people were aware or involved in this paper leak,” Srinivas said.

This is the second time that the SIT has taken the accused into custody. They were grilled earlier after the court sent them to police custody for six days.

A city court on 25 March ordered the four accused to police custody for three days.

The officials of the SIT, which took their custody on 26 March, questioned the four accused about their accomplices and other details of the case.

This is the second time that SIT has taken custody of the accused after the high court granted it their custody on 18 March.

Related: Bandi Sanjay skips SIT appearance again, this time claiming mistrust

As many as 15 candidates questioned

As per reports, a day before the questioning of these candidates, the SIT officials called the suspects on the mobile numbers they submitted during the one-time registration (OTR) with the TSPSC.

Speaking to the reporters, one of the candidates who was questioned by the SIT said that they were asked to fill out a form with details — date of birth, occupation, TSPSC one-time registration number, and academic credentials.

The candidate added that the officials also asked them if they had appeared for any other TSPSC exams in the past.

“They are checking our background and bank transactions,” the candidate claimed.

Related: Revanth Reddy gives evidence to SIT to support allegations

Recent arrests in TSPSC case

Initially, nine accused were arrested on 13 March in the TSPSC Assistant Engineer (AE) paper leak by the Hyderabad City Police.

On 23 March, three more people were arrested — Suresh (a former colleague of kingpin Praveen Kumar), Shameem (section officer with the TSPSC), and D Ramesh Kumar (personal assistant to a TSPSC member).

The trio had not only cleared the Group-1 preliminary exam but also scored more than 100 marks, apparently with the help of already arrested accused, Praveen Kumar and Rajashekhar Reddy.

As per an SIT official, only eight of the 20 TSPSC employees appearing for the Group-1 exam qualified for the test.

Among the eight employees, only Shameem and Ramesh answered more than 100 questions correctly.

So far, there is no evidence to establish that the rest of the six employees had access to questions through Praveen.

On 24 March, two more people — Prashant Reddy of Nawabpet and Rajendar of Shadnagar — were arrested for their alleged role in the TSPSC paper leak.

They came to the notice of cops in the CCTV footage recovered from a hotel in LB Nagar, where the two accused had met Lavdyavath Dhakya and Rajender, who have already been arrested in connection with the case.

Related: Accused Raja Shekhar Reddy’s wife alleges custodial torture