It was a contract worker who stole the question paper of Post Graduate Medical Entrance Test-14 from the press in Manipal, Karnataka, helping the syndicate of brokers make crores of rupees and forcing the government to cancel the test.
The worker, Praveen, was infiltrated into Manipal Technologies Limited, which printed the PGMET question paper, by Karnataka-based broker Ameer Ahmed a few months ago.
Based on the confession of Praveen and Ahmed, the holders of ranks 1, 23, 29 & 95 Akula Sreekanth, Sonia Arogya Prakash, V.N. Goutham Varma and P. Vineela respectively were arrested. Brokers Anuj Kumar Singh of Mumbai and Suresh Babu of Bangalore were arrested along with Avinash, a doctor. Phanindra, a doctor from Karimnagar, who paid Rs. 60 lakh to the brokers on behalf of his wife Sai Sudha, second rank holder, and another candidate B. Sreenivas, was also arrested on charge of abetting the accused, the Crime Investigation Department Additional DGP T. Krishna Prasad said at a press conference on Saturday.
Video footage recorded by surveillance cameras in the press showed Praveen hurling a piece of cloth on the question papers being printed. He then walks into the rest room concealing the paper in the cloth.
“While going out he hid the test paper in his undergarment. The security personnel failed to check the workers,” Mr. Prasad said. Once the paper landed in his hands, Ahmed contacted his network of educational consultants at Mumbai and Bangalore.
One broker engaged a doctor, Avinash, of Bangalore to prepare key to the question paper. They contacted 27 candidates appearing for the test and struck a deal with them to sell the paper involving exchange of crores of rupees.
