The question paper leak case involving the Group-II Services examination conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) in August this year has been transferred to the Crime Branch CID.
Director-General of Police K. Ramanujam issued orders transferring the sensational cases, registered by Erode and Dharmapuri police, to the CBCID on Saturday, police sources said.
The leakage of the question paper surfaced after a couple of candidates in Erode and Dharmapuri were found to be in possession of a handwritten note containing about 40 questions before the commencement of the examination on August 12.
The examination held for filling 3,631 vacancies in Group-II services was cancelled much to the shock of over 6 lakh candidates who appeared across the State.
Besides half-a-dozen middlemen, investigators found the role of some school teachers in the scam. Despite a few arrests, police were yet to pinpoint the source of leak though the needle of suspicion points to a Kolkata-based printing centre, the sources said.
4,000 beneficiaries
As part of an ongoing internal enquiry, TNPSC authorities analysing the answer scripts of the cancelled Group-II examination found that the pattern of answers of at least 4,000 candidates were similar.
“We have zeroed in on 4,000 candidates who could have benefited from the question paper leak. A computer-aided analysis short listed these candidates whose pattern of answers was similar. Most of them are from Erode, Salem, Dharmapuri and Chennai,” TNPSC chairman R. Nataraj said.
He said the commission would conduct a detailed enquiry and not hesitate to debar the candidates if they had benefited from the question paper leak.
If the suspected printing centre is proved to be the source of leak, the same would be blacklisted.
Mr. Nataraj said elaborate arrangements have been made for the safe transport, storage and distribution of the questions papers for the Village Administrative Officer examination on September 30. Hall tickets had been sent to about 9.6 lakh candidates.
