This was the third consecutive day of arrests by the Special Investigation Team that has been set up to probe the case.
The SIT has arrested at least seven accused in the past three days in the TSPSC paper leak case. (Creative Commons)
With each passing day, the investigation is deepening into the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak case.
Continuing the arrests on the third consecutive day, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case arrested two more suspects on Thursday, 18 May.
With the recent arrests, the tally of the arrested accused has moved to 36 so far in the question paper leak case.
Initially, nine people, including two Commission employees, a constable and a school teacher, were arrested on 13 March over allegations of leaking the Assistant Engineer (AE) question paper.
On Thursday, the SIT arrested Prithvi, a Junior Panchayat Secretary in the Khammam district, and Rajeshwar, an aspirant from Adilabad.
“Prithviraj has been arrested for procuring the Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) exam and Rajeshwar for AE Civil exam. Prithviraj paid ₹2 lakh for the question paper while Rajeshwar did not pay anything,” DCP Crimes Shabarish P, who is now heading the SIT, told South First.
He added that more people who bought the exams are being identified and traced.
A day earlier, the SIT arrested three more people — including the wives of two main accused — for appearing in exams whose papers were leaked.
Shanti, the wife of accused K Rajeshwar, completed the teacher training programme while Sucharita, wife of TSPSC network administrator A Rajashekhar Reddy, pursued postgraduation in Chemistry.
Meanwhile, the third arrested accused was Dattu Ramavath, an MCom graduate from Pedavoora in the Nalgonda district who worked as a mediator between accused Muralidhar and four job aspirants in providing them with the AE (Civil) and AEE exam papers.
The four aspirants — Mahesh, Varun, Sai and Siva Kumar — have already been arrested along with Muralidhar.
The only accused in the case who is on the run is Prashant, brother-in-law of TSPSC network administrator A Rajasekhar Reddy. He is said to be currently in New Zealand.
On 16 May, Ravi Teja, an employee with the Accountant General (AG)’s office in Bengaluru and three others were arrested for their alleged role in the TSPSC question paper leak.
The others arrested included a freelance education consultant, Kranti, site engineer Sasidhar and a teacher, Rahul.
“Teja bought the divisional accounts officer (DAO) question paper from Sai Laukik, a car rental businessman from Khammam for ₹15 lakh. Laukik’s wife, Sushmita, who’s already arrested, had purchased it from the kingpin, Praveen Kumar,” SIT chief Shabarish said.
Sushmita reportedly quit her MNC job to prepare for the civil services exams and first met Praveen (PA of the TSPSC secretary) when she visited the TSPSC office with an enquiry.
Praveen struck a deal to sell the DAO question paper for ₹10 lakh, after which Sushmita’s husband Laukik paid ₹6 lakh and purchased the question paper.
Meanwhile, Laukik decided to make some money, for which he got in touch with Ravi Teja and sold him the DAO paper for ₹15 lakh.
Another accused, Kranti, who was a consultant from Ibrahimpatnam, procured the AEE exam question paper from yet another accused, Muralidhar.
The fourth arrested accused, Rahul, a teacher who worked with another accused Renuka (a school teacher who was arrested initially) was arrested for purchasing the DAO question paper after which he appeared in the exam.
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