Kingpin of PU paper leak repeats act for State exam

Shivakumaraiah held, candidates detained; exam cancelled

November 25, 2018 01:05 am | Updated 01:05 am IST - Bengaluru

The CCB in Bengaluru arrested 66-year-old Shivakumaraiah in Madikeri on Saturday for allegedly leaking the question paper of the Karnataka Civil Police Examination, scheduled to be held on Sunday. The CCB team raided a school in Madikeri and caught the accused — who is also one of the kingpins in the 2016 PU chemistry paper leakage scam — red-handed while he was allegedly handing out questions and answers to 116 candidates.

After confirming that the question paper was the same as the one that was to be issued on Sunday, Raghavendra Auradkar, Additional Director-General of Police (Recruitment and Training), cancelled the written examination.

Fresh date for the exam is yet to be announced.

According to the police, Shivakumaraiah had allegedly charged each of the candidates ₹6 to ₹8 lakhs for the paper and answers, and held a ‘tutorial’ at Sri Nanjundeshwara Vidya Mandira school in Somwarpet taluk, Madikeri. During the raid, the police rounded up 116 candidates hailing from north Karnataka, along with seven drivers and four mini-buses. Shivakumaraiah’s associate, Basavaraju, managed to escape and efforts are on to trace him.

Shivakumaraiah had been dismissed from his teacher’s post at a government school in Tumakuru in 2008 for irregularities, after which he started a tutorial. “He got into the business of procuring question papers in advance and is a habitual offender,” a senior police officer.

Investigations revealed that Shivakumaraiah had assured the candidates that they would clear the exam with flying colours. “He used his network to reach out to potential candidates. Those who agreed to pay were called to Somwarpet, where he provided them accommodation and started to tutor them,” the officer added.

It was Mr. Auradkar who first got an alert about his activities. A few candidates called him up and informed him that the question paper was being made available to those who were willing to pay lakhs for it. Mr. Auradkar alerted the CCB, who send a team to carry out the raid. Shivakumaraiah has been arrested for cheating and under various sections of the IT Act. “ He used different SIM cards to communicate with his clients. He even opened several Twitter and FB accounts using fake names,” said the police. “We suspect he sourced the paper from a printing press using his contacts.”

Link to II PU Chemistry paper leakage

In May 2016, the accused Shivakumaraiah was arrested for his role in the II PU Chemistry question paper leakage. At the time, the CID said he was one of kingpins. “He was very cautious while communicating with people and would use code names. ‘Tomato’ was the code name for the business that he did with the second PU question papers,” CID sources said.

He was allegedly involved in leaking SSLC, CET, and KPSC papers since 2008. Criminal cases were registered against him at various police stations such as New Extension police station in Tumakuru, Gubbi police station, Vijayanagar, Nandhini Layout, Chandra Layout and Malleswaram police stations in Bengaluru.

In the Chemistry paper leakage, the CID had invoked the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA) and remanded him in judicial custody. However, he was given bail recently.

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