Vadodara: Investigators have traced the roots of the Gujarat Junior clerk exam paper leak case to a printing press in Telangana with the middlemen selling the paper for as high as Rs 1 lakh, officials said. The Gujarat ATS, which is probing the case, had arrested at least 16 people in the case. As per the investigators, it has come to light that the planning of the paper leak in the Junior Clerk exam in Gujarat is linked to Hyderabad city of Telangana.
It is learnt that the first copy of the paper was given to one accused Pradeep Nayak. Pradeep decided to sell the paper to Murari Paswan and Naresh Mohanty who in turn sold it to Kamlesh. Later, the paper kept changing hands, from Kamlesh to Mohammad Firoz. Firoz, who sold it to Sarvesh and Sarvesh sold it to Mintu. But as soon as the paper circulated among the middlemen, the middlemen added Rs 1 lakh to the price of the paper, investigators said. In Gujarat, Mintoo further sold the paper to Bhaskar Chowdhary of Vadodara. The paper landed in the hands of Ketan Barot, Raj Barot, Aniket Bhatt and Imran, officials said.
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They said that Ketan Barote Raj and Aniket Bhatt presented this paper to Hardik and Pranay Sharma. Besides, Naresh Mohanty wanted to sell this paper to his relatives. Mukesh and Prabhat Kumar were also about to sell paper it to their acquaintance. As per the investigators, accused Pradeep, who had taken the paper from a worker outside the printing press, was to deliver it to Chowdhary at Stackwise Technology's office on the third floor of the Pramukh Bazar building on Atladara Bill Road in Vadodara.
The competitive exam for the recruitment of junior clerks was scheduled to be held between 11 am and 12 pm on Sunday. However, the exam was postponed at the eleventh hour due to an alleged paper leak. Over 9.53 lakh candidates had applied for 1,181 vacancies of Class III Junior Clerk (Administration/Account) posts. The Gujarat ATS has obtained 12 days remand of the accused by presenting them in the Vadodara court in the paper leak case. According to the details presented in the court, the paper leak scam has its roots in Hyderabad. The paper deal took place near KL Hitech Printing Press Agency at a tea stall at Road No 36, Jubilee Hills Road, Hyderabad.
