Coaching centre-middlemen nexus aided paper leak scam in Himachal

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, May 19

A nexus between coaching centres and middlemen had helped the paper leak gang to identify potential candidates.

Under scanner

• A probe has confirmed that four candidates, arrested from Nalagarh on May 15, had taken coaching at a centre in Nalagarh
• Seven, arrested last evening from Arki, had taken admission in another centre in Solan
• The role of a coaching centre at Fatehpur in Kangra district had also emerged in the scam

Seven candidates, who had taken coaching at a centre in Solan, were arrested last evening from Arki. They are Sachin Verma, Naresh Kumar, Manish Verma, Virender Kumar, Khem Raj and Priyanka Thakur. It is being probed how the agents came in touch with the candidates.

A probe, conducted by the Solan police, has confirmed that four candidates arrested from Nalagarh on May 15 had taken coaching at a centre in Nalagarh while seven, arrested last evening from Arki, had admitted to another centre in Solan.

The role of a coaching centre at Fatehpur in Kangra district had also emerged in the scam.

Naresh and Sachin were among those who had participated in the 3.27-minute chat regarding purchasing the constable written exam paper. They had been arrested earlier too but had got bail. They had stated that they failed to purchase the paper owing to financial constraints. All seven had scored marks in 60s. They had been under the scanner ever since the chat had gone viral in mid-April.

The police also arrested an agent Raunak Dhankar from Panipat who had tutored the four Nalagarh youths along with the candidates from Arki on March 26, a day before the written exam was held at Solan.

“His interrogation led to the arrest of seven candidates from Arki, who had paid him about Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to secure the question paper,” said Sharma.

A probe into the financial dealing of the candidates was under way as they had paid lakhs of rupees to the agents.They were produced before a local court for securing the police remand.

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