The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force busted a gang and arrested 11 people for their involvement in leaking question papers for an examination that was scheduled to be held on Sunday for recruitment of tubewell operators. The Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UPPSC) postponed the exam after the paper leak came to light. New dates for the UPPSC tubewell operator exam will be announced later.
The gang was busted by a team of the STF late Saturday night. The police arrested 11 people involved in the leak. Those arrested include the mastermind, a school teacher, and five students. Also, Rs 15 lakh cash, more than 20 mobile phones, hard copies of question papers and answersheets were recovered from the possession of arrested gang members.
The arrested mastermind, Sachin Chaudhary, a resident of Meerut, taught in a school in Meerut. “He had been under the scanner of STF for the past few months,” STF Circle Officer Brijesh Kumar said confirming his arrest. Interrogations are going on and soon names of their other accomplices and modus operandi would be disclosed, said Kumar.
Chaudhary and his aides had settled a deal with the candidates for Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh each against solved question papers. They were supposed to get the money post examination on Sunday. But they were arrested by the STF before the examination.
An advertisement for recruitment of 3210 tubewell operators was published in 2016. The recruitment was to be done through a written exam that was scheduled on September 2. Over 2 lakh applicants had applied for the post for which centres were in Lucknow , Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Meerut, Agra and Bareilly.