CBI charge sheets mastermind of 2017 SSC paper leak, two others

The CBI has filed a charge sheet against the alleged mastermind of the 2017 Staff Selection Commission examination paper leak and his two accomplices, officials said on Tuesday.

The agency has recently filed the charge sheet in a special court against the alleged mastermind Akshay Kumar Malik and his accomplices Sandeep Mathur and Dharmendra for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and violation of Information Technology Act, 2000, they said.

It is alleged that the paper of the second tier of the Combined Graduate Level (CGL) examination, 2017, which took place on February 21, 2018, and its answer keys were allegedly leaked and became viral on social media before the examination began.

"The CBI had on May 22, 2018 registered a Regular Case (RC) against certain private persons including candidates, officials of the Noida (Uttar Pradesh)-based private technology company and unknown officials of the SSC and other unknown persons on the allegations of criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct by the public servants and cheating by personation by using computer resources with regard to conduct of online CGL Tier-II Examination, 2017," the agency had said in a statement.

Over 30 lakh candidates across the country had applied for over 8,000 vacancies. Out of these, around 1.5 lakh candidates were short-listed after the Tier-1 exam.

The examination papers were set in such a way that an examinee got the questions in a certain sequence, the CBI officials said.

The candidates used remote access software for solving their question papers by means of outside help from unknown persons, they said.