The Himachal Pradesh government has ordered CBI probe into the paper leak case in the police constable recruitment examination, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Tuesday.

Thakur said the probe has been ordered as questions were raised on police investigating the case which involves the Police department.

“We want to ensure a free and fair probe into the case and give a clear message that the government doesn’t support such acts.

The CBI probe has been ordered as the investigation by SIT has pointed out towards nexus of criminals from other states as compared to previous assertion that the racket was based in the state only,” he added.

He stated that so far, 73 persons including parents of two candidates and 10 criminals from other states has been arrested in the paper leak case.

Besides, Rs 8.49 lakh, original certificates of some candidates, car, laptop and other incriminating evidence gad been recovered from one agent.

Yesterday, one accused identified as Shiv Bahadur Singh had been arrested from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and one another criminal, Aman from Bihar had also been nabbed.

The scam has come to light after a few persons raised suspicion on the written examination for constable recruitment after which toppers were scrutinized by cops. Despite figuring in merit list, these were not able to basic questions about Himachal and it led to spilling of beans on the paper leak after which a case was registered and a SIT was also constituted.

The SIT during investigation found that the racket was spread over in 10 states of the country and probing it would be a huge task that led to seeking CBI probe, he further added.

It is worth mentioning here that around 74,000 candidates had appeared for recruitment to the 1,334 posts of constables including 932 males, 311 females and 94 male constables for driver posts at 81 examination centers in 11 districts.

The examination was held on 27 March and the result of the written test was declared on 5 April.

The cheating had come to light during the process of scrutiny of documents of the candidates in which it was found that three candidates had secured 70 marks each out of the total 90 marks. However, their aggregate total of the marks obtained in matric examination was less than 50 per cent which raised suspicion.

The trio were questioned by the cops on the anomaly and they broke down during the interrogation and allegedly admitted to cheating.

They allegedly admitted that they had paid a sum of Rs 6-8 lakh for answers of the examination and they were asked to memorise these.