4 more arrested in Guj constable exam paper leak case

Gujarat police Tuesday arrested four persons in connection with the leak of a constable recruitment exam paper, a senior police official said.

A written exam for the recruitment of Gujarat police constables was Sunday cancelled hours before it was scheduled to commence after authorities learnt that the paper had got leaked.

As many as 8.75 lakh candidates were to appear for the exam, for 9,700 posts, which was to start at 3pm Sunday in 2,440 centres across Gujarat.

The total number of arrests in this connection now stood at eight, police said.

Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Mayur Chavda Tuesday identified the four arrested persons as Arvalli resident Pritesh Patel, Narendra Chaudhary of Mehsana, Ajaysinh Parmar and Uttamsinh Bhati of Banaskantha.

He said the four accused were to appear for the Sunday exam and their questioning had revealed that a Delhi-based gang was involved in leaking the exam paper.

Chavda said the four, along with some 20-25 others, went to Delhi from Gandhinagar in four vehicles as directed by the Delhi-based gang, members of which are as yet unidentified.

"As directed by the gang, four vehicles left from Gandhinagar on November 29. Bhati aborted his journey midway due to ill health. The others reached Delhi on November 30 and then went to Gurugram in vehicles provided by the gang," the SP told reporters in Gandhinagar.

"The gang showed them a question paper and gave them two hours to go through it. The accused have told police the gang members took cheques of Rs 5 lakh from each candidate. All of them came back to Gujarat the next day either by air or by road" the SP informed.

The gang members told the candidates that the cheques would be deposited only if the exam question paper was the same as the one they had been shown, the official said.

One Yashpal Solanki, whose name had cropped up Monday during the probe, was also part of the group which went to Delhi, he said.

"After landing here on December 1, these accused shared the answers of the question paper to others, including those who were arrested on Monday. It has been established that the paper was leaked from Delhi," said Chavda.

Four people, including two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and a sub-inspector, were Monday arrested in connection with the paper leak.

Two of the accused arrested on Monday, identified as BJP workers Manhar Patel and Mukesh Chaudhary, were suspended by the party.