Cops probing the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) question leak have arrested a person from Delhi they believe was a key player in the scam, and the state IAS officers' association has replied to the state government on the show-cause notice to association members who had protested in front of Raj Bhavan last month over the arrest of BSSC chairman Sudhir Kumar.

Sleuths of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the scam in Delhi to search for senior IAS officer C.K. Anil, who they want to quiz, have arrested Gurgaon-based Anand Brar, who was involved in the pre-printing production job of the question papers.

"Brar, who we were searching for in the case, has been arrested from New Delhi," said Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj, who is heading the SIT.

Brar was arrested from a spot near the All India Institute of Medical Science in Delhi, said highly placed police sources. The cops believe Brar was in direct contact with arrested BSSC secretary Parmeshwar Ram and was in cahoots with the printing press owner Vinit Agarwal of Gujarat, whom the police have already arrested.

"The arrest of Brar is an important link in cracking the case as BSSC former secretary Parmeshwar Ram and other kingpins in the case were attached with him," said ASP Rakesh Dubey, who is a part of the SIT.

Sources said the cops believe Parmeshwar used to pass on the names of "recommended" candidates to Brar.

Interrogating Brar, the cops believe, will help build a water-tight case against the accused. The SIT has to submit the charge sheet in the case by this month. "Before submitting the charge sheet we want to strengthen the case by probing all aspects in the case," an SIT member said under cover of anonymity.

With the arrest of Brar, the SIT has till date nabbed 34 persons in the case including Sudhir, whose arrest has triggered a face-off between the bureaucracy and the government. The state IAS officers association members had petitioned Governor Ram Nath Kovind against Sudhir's arrest and many of them had formed a human chain outside Raj Bhavan on February 26. The government had issued show-cause notices to those IAS officers who participated in the protest, asking them to explain whether they had taken permission for their protest.

"We have submitted our reply to state government," a senior office-bearer of the state IAS officers association said under cover of anonymity. "We have mentioned in our reply that our protest was not against the state government but the manner in which the senior IAS officer (Sudhir) is being treated."

The IAS-government showdown is in no danger of dying out soon, with the SIT still hunting for Anil - "missing" since his name figured on the list of the people who could be quizzed - in Delhi and two more IAS officers being on the cops' radar over the scam.