3 more arrested in Chemistry question paper leak case

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested three more persons, including a junior engineer in the Public Works Department (PWD), in connection with the II PU Chemistry question paper leak.

A top police source said the arrested are K S Ranganath, a resident of Rajarajeshwari Nagar here and junior engineer at PWD, B Anil Kumar, 49, a real estate agent from Ullal near Kengeri and K M Muralidhar, a resident of Jalahalli, who owns a private tutorial.

The trio were in constant touch with the kingpin of the racket Shivakumar and his son Dinesh and Kiran alias Kumaraswamy. Ranganath’s son was appearing for the second PU exams. He came to know that Rudrappa, who works in the same office, was in possession of the Chemistry question paper. He bought the question paper for Rs 50,000 from Rudrappa, said the source.

Anil Kumar also obtained the question paper directly from Shivakumar for his son, who was also appearing for the exams. Kumar then sold the question paper to a few students and parents and made money.

Muralidhar owned the A-3 tutorial centre in Jalahalli, where he used to answer the question paper provided by Shivakumar the previous day. Shivakumar used to sell these answer sheets to students and made lakhs of rupees. Shivakumar used to give around 20% commission to Muralidhar.

“Shivakumar used to get the question paper 30 hours before the exams. He used to sell it to as many students as possible with the help of agents and mediators. Later, he used to go to Muralidhar, who used to prepare answers. He would then go to Anil Kumar’s house and sell the answer sheets to students willing to pay huge amounts,” said the source.

Sources at the CID said Oblaraju, Rudrappa and Manjunath, who were arrested earlier in connection with the leak, were remanded in judicial custody till April 27. As their police custody came to an end on Wednesday, they were produced before the first ACMM court. “As the investigation was completed, the judge remanded them in judicial custody. If required, we will take them for interrogation later. The three who were arrested on Wednesday were remanded in police custody till April 18.

Rudrappa is employed as an office manager at the PWD. Manjunath is a PE teacher at a private college.­