CBI arrests 16 in City for Railway exam paper leak

CBI sleuths arrested 16 people, including a Railway official, an advocate and 13 aspirants, on Sunday for their alleged involvement in leaking the question paper for the Railway assistant loco pilot (ALP) examination.

CBI sources said the arrested were Mahesh, a Work Study Inspector, advocate Shivaramaiah and Dayanand. 

More people from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and parts of North India are likely to be arrested. The main accused, Divisional Personal Officer Shivanna, is said to be absconding.

The ALP examination was scheduled on Sunday. The accused had demanded Rs 5 lakh each from the 13 aspirants, to whom they promised to give question papers before the commencement of the exam. 

Based on a tip-off, CBI sleuths raided a flat belonging to one Shivaramaiah in Dinnur and arrested the 13 aspirants, who were waiting for the question paper. During interrogation, the aspirants revealed that Shivanna, Mahesh and Dayanand were involved in the racket.

The CBI immediately raided the houses of the accused and arrested two of them, but could not trace Shivanna. 

The sleuths also recovered Rs 1.5 lakh and a few model question papers from their houses, said CBI sources. The arrested are being investigated to gather more details about the racket. An FIR has been registered and further investigation is on. 

The arrested will be produced before the CBI Special Court on Monday morning. A railway official said, “We are not sure who is involved in the racket, but a few names are doing the rounds. We cannot confirm the names as of now.”

The examination to the post of about 800 ALPs was held across 56 centres in the City. A total of 28,000 candidates were supposed to appear, but only 8,400 turned up to write the examination.