The CBI on Wednesday registered an FIR against 17 persons, including 10 employees of Sify Technologies Pvt ltd in connection with the leak of paper for graduate level examination of Staff Selection Commission.
The agency carried out searches at 12 locations, including four offices of the Sify Technologies Private limited in Chennai, Noida, Mumbai and Okhla, New Delhi, besides the residence of one of its employees, Sant Prasad Gupta in Sheikh Sarai area. The CBI has also named seven students in the FIR who had appeared in the examination on the basis of the screenshot of the question paper which was allegedly leaked and became viral on social media.
Following the protests, the Ministry of Home Affairs has directed the CBI to probe the leaks in March this year.
According to the CBI, the examination papers were set in such a way that an examinee got the questions in a certain ‘sequence’ unique to the examination centres, which were termed as ‘labs’ in this case. Going by the pattern of the questions leaked, the CBI managed to locate seven students who would have received those questions in that particular pattern. These students have been named as accused and their complicity would be decided during the course of investigation which has begun now, the officials said.
Earlier this month, a Delhi government clerk, suspected to be the mastermind of a crime syndicate helping candidates cheat the online examination conducted by the SSC, was arrested. With the arrest of Harpal Singh, on May 4, the total number of gang members arrested in the case had reached 10.
last month, Delhi Police arrested five persons in connection with the matter. Another four were arrested in March, when the case was transferred to the crime Branch from the north district police.
During interrogation, the police found that the syndicate worked as a organised grouping. The members would hack into the online system and assist candidates taking the examination. The candidates were charged between Rs 5 and Rs 10 lakh. The gang allegedly had developed a network with examination centres and computer labs in various cities. The SSC outsources the conduct of the examination to labs such as these.