SSC question paper leak: Plea seeking custody of Telangana BJP chief filed

Police on Thursday filed a petition at a court in Warangal district seeking custody of

Telangana BJP President and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar and other arrested persons in connection with the case of malpractice after two question papers of X standard (SSC) board exam surfaced on groups of an instant messaging app.

A petition opposing the bail plea of Sanjay Kumar was also filed by police in the court, which will come up for hearing today.

Police have sought three days custody of Sanjay Kumar and three other accused, who are in judicial remand and lodged in a jail in Karimnagar, for further investigation in the case.

The custodial interrogation of the accused persons is needed to elicit more information in connection with the case and also as data in the phones has been deleted, police said.

As part of investigation, police were also in the process of issuing notices to all those including BJP MLA E Rajender, to whom some of the accused had sent the photos of the question paper.

"We will be issuing notices to record their statements as witnesses. They have to appear before the investigators," a senior Police official told PTI.

Amid midnight drama, Sanjay Kumar, a Lok Sabha MP from Karimnagar constituency, was arrested by police on Wednesday after he was named as the prime accused by the Warangal police in connection with the case of malpractice.

TheC Hindi question paper was posted in a group of the app by the accused on April 4 and subsequently shared in other groups by one of the accused, who had also sent it to Sanjay Kumar, police had said.

Along with Sanjay Kumar three others were arrested in this regard besides a minor boy was also apprehended.

Sanjay Kumar had filed a bail application in a Warangal Court on Wednesday and it is expected to be heard today. Also, a habeas corpus petition was filed in the Telangana High Court. That also would come up for hearing today.

According to Warangal Police Commissioner AV Ranganath, Sanjay Kumar conspired with an intention to create rumours and provoke breach of peace of the ongoingC public examination in Telangana state after images of two question papers surfaced in social media, to defame the government for the circulation to create fear among students and their parents thereby to defame the duly elected state government.

The images of theC Telugu and Hindi question papers surfaced in the social media platform on April 3 and April 4 while the exams were on.

The exams began all over Telangana on Monday.