Paper leak scam busted

Source found in printing press, 27 held in 4 months

 The examination paper for the recruitment of constables into Delhi Police that were found leaked in May this year had been procured directly from a printing press, police claimed to have learnt.

Question papers of this as well as several other exams were let out by some people at the printing press after which “analysers” decoded which examinations the papers were meant for.

Over the last four months since the leak of the Delhi Police question paper was revealed, 27 people have been held from four states. One of the main kingpins, identified as Amar, was arrested on Minto Road in Delhi on Monday.

“Amar led the police team to the main source of leak which was found to be the printing press. Gorakh Nath, an employee of the printing press, had procured the paper and given to Amar. Nath was subsequently arrested the same day,” said a police officer of Delhi Police’s Crime Branch which had taken up the investigation in May.

Nath allegedly disclosed that in the printing press, he was employed at the cutting machine where the question papers are cut and sorted. He had managed to get hold of the constable recruitment question paper, hidden it inside his shoe and smuggled it out. Police said Nath was one of the “procurers” at the printing press who provided the racketeers question papers of various examinations.

“Analysers in the gang then linked the question papers to the examination it is for. The linking depends on the number of questions, time provided for the exam, type of questions and breakup of marks,” the officer said.

Once that is done, the candidates are procured by a well-integrated network of touts and coaching institutes. 

These touts only decide the amount to be paid for the answers to the question papers. In the constable recruitment exam, the touts allegedly charged each candidate Rs 5-6 lakh.The question papers, meanwhile, are solved by generally school teachers, police claimed to have learnt.
 “Thus, the syndicate is a conglomerate of coaching centres, touts, school teachers, property dealers, procurers, analysers, solvers, etc, who are all well-educated and connected,” said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), adding it is a highly lucrative business.

The scam had first been busted on May 24 when Delhi Police Constable Sawarmal Yadav, while travelling in a shared three-wheeler, noticed a youth dictating answers to someone over phone while reading from a paper chit.

As soon as Yadav asked the youth for an explanation, he tried to chew the paper slip. Yadav managed to pull out the paper from his mouth and even recovered another chit from him. Subsequent investigations to unearth the entire scam spanned over four months during which 27 people in Bihar, Delhi, Haryana and UP were arrested.