A senior official of the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) has come under police scanner for his "cordial relations" with the kingpin of an inter-state examination racket allegedly involved in duping job aspirants.
The officer in question reportedly came in contact with the kingpin, Pawan Kumar, who was arrested on Saturday on the charge of leaking the question paper of the intermediate level examination for appointment of clerks in different government departments.
Pawan, a resident of Fatuha in Patna rural, purportedly told the interrogators that he met a senior official of the commission through a common friend. "The official disclosed his nationwide network and links with some question paper solvers," an investigating officer quoted Pawan as saying.
The BSSC official reportedly told Pawan to wait for an opportune moment to help each other and make a fast buck. "I contacted him (the official) recently and we chalked out a strategy to get the test of the candidates cleared," Pawan is reported to have told the interrogators.
The BSSC conducts the examination for appointment of clerks in the state government. The first phase of the examination was conducted last Sunday. The police had arrested five members of the gang from the Shivala area on January 28 followed by three others from Agamkuan.
Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj said on Sunday that a special investigation team (SIT) has been set up to nail members of the gang, which used to lure candidates of various competitive examinations to get government jobs.
Pawan, the SSP said, admitted he was involved in several examination paper leak cases since 2014. He also disclosed that he had managed examination centres for aspirants with the connivance of several government officers in the compe-titive examinations of police, jail and excise and prohibition departments.
SSP Maharaaj said the SIT would look into all these aspects in the course of investigation. The hi-tech gang used to lure candidates by promising to make them clear the test for Rs 4 to 6 lakh.
The police had seized 13 bluetooth and credit-card type devices with SIM cards and button batteries, power banks, 10 batteries, 90 earphones,10 cellphones and four separate SIM cards from a rented house on the Kanti Factory Road under the jurisdiction of Agamkuan police station.
Pawan and his two associates - Bipin Kumar (Nalanda) and Navneet Kumar (East Champaran) - also disclosed names of their other associates. The SIT arrested 28 suspects from Nawada on the basis of information given by the trio.
Vests and shirts with wires and sleek devices stitched to them were also recovered during the raid. The police claimed the devices were meant to facilitate cheating and took credit for having foiled an organised gang's bid to indulge in malpractices during exams.
But BSSC secretary Parmeshwar Ram denied the report of question paper leak. "I have asked Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal to inquire into the matter," he told The Telegraph.
Reports say the question papers were leaked on WhatsApp as soon as the exam began at 11am on Sunday. Rumours of the question paper being sold for Rs 1,000 had been doing the rounds since morning. Leaked question papers went viral on WhatsApp as the exam began. This is the second time an exam racket has rocked the state. Irregularities had surfaced in Intermediate exams last year.
