Taking a serious note of the alleged leak of question paper of its recruitment examination, the Army on Monday ordered a Court of Inquiry (COI) to ascertain facts and punish Army personnel if found involved in the racket. The Army top brass also discussed the issue here and reviewed steps to prevent repetition of such incidents.
Meanwhile, Thane crime branch officials on Monday arrested three more persons, taking the number of persons arrested in connection with the Army recruitment question leak scam to 21.
The racket was busted by Thane police in Maharashtra on Sunday and the Southern Command of the Army ordered its own Court of Inquiry, officials said here on Monday adding the tests at some other centres may be countermanded based on the findings of the inquiry.
After the police exposed the racket, the Army had on Sunday cancelled examinations at a number of centres including Kamptee, Nagpur, Ahmednagar, Ahmedabad, Goa and Kirkee, which come under the Pune zone.
The examinations were held for a number of posts, including those of soldier clerk, strongman and soldier tradesman, at 52 centres across the country. These centres are part of the 12 zones looking after recruitment process.
The police arrested 18 suspects, including a retired serviceman and a para-military personnel, during raids in Maharashtra and Goa since Saturday midnight.
Joint Commissioner of Thane police Ashutosh Dumbare had said on Sunday that 350 students who possessed question papers were detained for questioning.
A case was registered under various sections of the IPC, IT Act and Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused, who were being brought to Thane for further inquiry. Among those arrested, nine were from Pune, six from Nagpur and three from Goa, he said. Of the detained candidates, 79 are from Pune, 222 from Nagpur and 49 from Goa.
The Thane police had received information a couple of days ago from an institute which conducts coaching classes for the Army job aspirants that some city students were to be given the question papers in advance for a price. The police caught the students and middlemen from lodges and other places with the copies of question papers, the officer said.
The middlemen also arranged fake domicile and residence proof for students hailing from other places so as to enable them to appear for the exam in that zone. The beneficiary was to pay around `4 to `5 lakh to the middlemen, said Dumbare. Police suspect that the papers were leaked either from the press or from the distribution centres.
