ED arrests 5 people in money laundering case linked to Rajasthan paper leak

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has arrested five people as part of its money laundering investigation into an alleged teacher recruitment exam paper leak case in Rajasthan.

Suresh Kumar alias Suresh Sau, Vijay Damore, Peeraram, Pukhraj, and Arun Sharma were taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on January 11, the agency said.

They were sent to three-day ED custody by a special PMLA court in Jaipur, it said in a statement.

The probe pertains to alleged paper leak case of senior teacher 2nd grade competitive examination, 2022 in Rajasthan.

Former Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) member Babulal Katara and two other persons identified as Anil Kumar Meena and Bhupendra Saran were earlier arrested by the ED in this case.

Arun Sharma provided 29 candidates (for whom leaked papers were arranged and who were appearing for the said competitive examination) to Anil Kumar Meena in lieu of Rs 2 lakh per candidate, the ED said.

Arun Sharma also paid Rs 10 lakh in advance to Anil Meena in lieu of getting the leaked papers for the candidates, it alleged.

The ED found Peeraram was involved in the paper leak since he provided his own bus for facilitating and tutoring the right answers of leaked question paper to candidates on the instruction of Suresh Sau.

Pukhraj was involved in the case as he arranged the stay of candidates, assisted in providing the solution of the leaked question paper and also appeared in the examination held on December 21, 2022 for which he got the leaked paper from Suresh Sau, it said.

Suresh Sau, as per investigation, was actively involved in paper leak case for the promised amount of Rs 1 crore from Bhupendra Saran and Suresh Dhaka, Sau's brother-in-law and main mastermind of the case.

Suresh Sau took the leaked question paper from Suresh Dhaka, and provided the question paper and solution to the appearing candidates, the agency alleged.

"Vijay Damore had written down the questions of GK paper in a register on the instruction of his maternal uncle Babulal Katara (former RPSC member) and supplied the said register to Anil Kumar Meena alias Sher Singh Meena, who in turn supplied it to Bhupendra Saran, Arun Sharma and others in exchange for felonious money," it said.

A chargesheet was also filed against the accused by the ED in this case in November last year after it filed a money laundering case against them taking cognisance of a Rajasthan Police FIR.