The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police has claimed to have arrested the mastermind behind the police constable recruitment examination paper leak case.

The accused, Rajeev Nayan Mishra, was arrested by the Noida STF. He was earlier also involved in similar cases, according to STF officials.

The STF will now take him in police custodial remand to extract details of the paper leak and names of others involved in the crime.

Over 48 lakh aspirants had appeared for the UP Police Recruitment Exam this year, including about 16 lakh women candidates. The exam was held on February 17 and 18 at 2,385 centres in four shifts across all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Through the recruitment drive, the UP government aimed to fill up 60,244 positions in the state police force.

The UP Police had earlier arrested or detained as many as 244 people from across the state on February 18 for allegedly plotting to adopt unfair means in the police constable recruitment exam. Later in March, the UP STF had arrested seven more people from Meerut and Delhi for their alleged involvement in the police recruitment exam paper leak case. As per officials, the accused were allegedly members of a gang involved in the question paper leak case.

Deepak, Bittu, Praveen, Rohit, Naveen, and Sahil, all residents of Meerut were arrested from a house in Kanker Kheda police station area. A Gautam Buddha Nagar resident Pramod Pathak was also arrested.

While announcing the cancellation of the exam, the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led government had given instructions to conduct a re-examination within six months.

“There can be no compromise with the sanctity of examinations. Those who play with the hard work of the youth will not be spared under any circumstances. Strictest action is certain to be taken against such unruly elements,” Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said in a post on X.

The exams were cancelled after several aspirants staged protests against the leaking of question papers. Hundreds of candidates who had appeared for the exam had demanded a re-examination. According to the protesting candidates, the sanctity of the examination was compromised after a question paper went viral on social media hours before the paper started.