Mumbai: Question papers for the Army Recruitment Board examinations were not the only ones they’ve leaked, accused arrested in Thane in the multi-State scam have told their interrogators.
Sources in Thane Police Crime Branch said on Monday that during preliminary questioning, the accused allegedly said the entire operation, including renting halls and taking aspirants to various locations and providing them with question papers, has been conducted several times in the past. “The gang has been active for at least two years,” a Crime Branch officer said.
DCP (Thane Crime Branch) Parag Manere said the police have evidence to indicate that this was not the first such offence by the accused. “We are verifying the details of this aspect.”
On Monday, three more accused were arrested from Pune based on leads obtained during questioning of the six arrested accused from the city, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 21. All accused were brought to Thane on Monday and produced in court, which remanded them in police custody till March 4.
Eighteen people were arrested early on Sunday by the Thane Police Crime Branch in simultaneous raids in Pune, Nagpur and Goa. In all, 350 candidates were detained at the three locations while allegedly memorising question papers before appearing for the exams later in the day.
More classes involved
Meanwhile, investigations into the modus operandi have indicated the involvement of some coaching classes in Thane district that prepare aspirants for Army Recruitment Board exams. “The accused would seek out owners or instructors at such coaching classes and tell them they could get a hefty sum if they helped in getting clients for the racket. These, in turn, would speak to their students individually and identify those willing to pay for leaked question papers. The willing aspirants would then be put in touch with the accused. The owners and instructors would get a cut from the money aspirants paid to the racketeers,” a Thane Police Crime Branch officer.
The officer added the accused would also frequent study centres and libraries preferred by young army job aspirants. Another officer said to ensure that none of the aspirants tried to cheat them, the accused would take their educational qualification certificates and keep them till the aspirants had paid in full. This was anything between ₹2 lakh and ₹5 lakh.
“Once a student passed the exam with the help of the accused, he automatically became a guilty party, which prevented him from reporting the racket in future for any reason,” the officer added.
