, Mar 4 (PTI) The CBI has arrested 26 railway officials including a senior divisional electrical engineer (DEE) of East Cental Railway in Uttar Pradesh's Mughal Sarai for allegedly leaking papers of a departmental examination and seized Rs 1.17 crore cash during its raids.

Sushant Parashar, posted at DRM office, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction as DEE (operations), was arrested on Monday night along with other officials who had allegedly taken money for leaking papers of departmental examination for the elevation to posts of chief loco pilot at Mughal Sarai, CBI officials said on Tuesday.

Sources in the agency said that the examination, which was to be conducted on Tuesday, has now been cancelled.

Parashar is a 2014-batch officer of Indian Railway Service of Engineers.

"He (Parashar) himself had written the questions in English and allegedly gave it to one loco pilot who, in turn, translated it into Hindi and further gave it to another official. The said official allegedly gave it to the candidates through few other railway employees," a CBI spokesperson said.

Upon getting the information about the alleged compromise of the examination, the CBI teams raided three spots in Mughal Sarai where the aspirants were holed up cramming the answers to the question papers allegedly provided to them, the officials said.

"During the checks conducted by CBI, at three spots on the intervening night (March 3-4) at Mughal Sarai, a total of 17 candidates were found with photocopies of hand-written question papers," the spokesperson said.

All 17 departmental candidates who are presently working as loco pilots had allegedly paid money for the question paper and were caught red-handed with the copies during the raid, he said.

"Overall, 26 railway officials (including the 17 aspirants) have been arrested in this case so far," the spokesperson said in a statement.

The agency has registered the FIR against Parashar who was given the responsibility for setting and preparing the question paper for the said examination.

"Searches were conducted at eight locations which resulted in recovery of Rs 1.17 crore in cash. The amount was reportedly collected from the candidates for leaking the question papers.

"The hand-written question papers along with their photocopies were seized. These question papers have been tallied with the original question paper and were found to have matched," the spokesperson said. PTI ABS ABS KVK KVK

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