As the investigation in the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC) paper leak case deepens, the state police informed that twenty people have been arrested in the case.

Ajay Singh, SSP of Special Task Force Uttarakhand, said that on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday another arrest was made. So far, twenty people have been arrested in this case, he said.

The Police official said that after a long intensive interrogation by STF Uttarakhand, Junior Engineer Lalit Raj Sharma, resident of Dhampur, was arrested and will be produced in the court today.

He further said that the STF got success in breaking the important link between the copying mafia of Uttar Pradesh with the mastermind Hakam.

He added that more than two dozen students had solved the questions of the leaked paper the night before the examination at the flat located in Dhampur of Lalit Raj Sharma.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) may soon begin a probe in to the UKSSSC paper leak case, according to a senior official.

This comes after the Uttarakhand STF sent a report of all the accused to the ED, following the disclosure of the unaccounted assets believed to be held by them.

SSP Ajay Singh, SSP, Uttarakhand STF earlier said that during the investigation, it had come to the fore that the question papers were sold to the candidates for amounts ranging from Rs 15 to 20 lakhs. So, there is a possibility of crores of rupees having been illegally collected. So far, Rs 83 lakh has even been recovered.

The case pertains to a written exam conducted by the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSC) in December 2021. This was one of the major examinations conducted by the commission for 854 posts across 13 departments.

However, there were widespread allegations that there were irregularities in the conduct of the test. Following these allegations, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami called for a probe and a strict action against those guilty.

Following this, the secretary of the commission was removed from the post. A Special Task Force (STF) was also constituted to investigate the alleged irregularities.

Initially, the Dehradun police registered a case against the unidentified accused. After that, the Police Headquarters (PHQ) handed over the investigation to the STF.

Since then, 20 people have been arrested in the case. These include some prominent names like district panchayat member Hakam Singh. Singh was arrested near the Mori area near the Himachal Pradesh border after he returned to the country from a trip abroad on August 7.

Gaurav Chauhan, an Additional Private Secretary working in Public Works and Forest Department of State Secretariat, was also arrested in connection with the case. Also, several officials and directors of a Lucknow-based printing press were called for questioning. This came after a staffer of the company was named a prime accused in the case post-arrest.