The suspicion to the contrary nursed by the investigators earlier notwithstanding, the Thane Police on Wednesday ruled out the involvement of any senior Army official in the much-discussed recruitment question papers leak scam, in which 21 people have so far been arrested.
Talking to mediapersons, Thane police commissioner Param Bir Singh said, “Prima facie we do not see any senior officer is involved in this crime. The investigations have so far revealed that only lower level staff is involved in the leak of the question papers of examination conducted by the Army Recruitment Board (ARB)”.
Having arrested 21 people in connection with the scam, the Thane crime branch sleuths are looking for some accused, including one low-level staffer from Army Recruiting Office (ARO) Dhaklu Patil, who played a key role in the scam.
All the 21 people, including a retired Army officer and a serving paramilitary person, are in police custody till March 4.
Following the question paper leak, the Army Recruitment Board (ARB) postponed the examinations, scheduled to begin at 11 am on Sunday, for an indefinite period in at least nine centres across the State.
Acting on a tip-off, a 80-member team of crime branch officials from Thane had on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday conducted simultaneous raids in Nashik, Pune, Nagpur in Maharashtra and in the neighbouring Goa and arrested 21 people involved in the Army recruitment question leak scam.
The epi-centre of the scam was Phaltan town in Satara district of western Maharashtra, where a team of investigators has rushed to carry out investigations. “Our team is camping there to get to the bottom of the scam,” Singh said.
Already in the custody is Santosh Shinde the owner of the Raje Chatrapati Academy, of Phalan of Satara district, who is one of the key players in the scam.
Dwelling upon the modus operandi, Singh said, “The question papers were usually dispatched by the ARB in a CD form to the AROs who in turn get them printed and make use of the same for the exams. The papers might have been leaked at the dispatch level where lower level staff of the Army is involved.”
That something might have been amiss even during the ARB examination held in 2016 could be gauged from that of nearly 50 students from the various private institutes from Maharashtra who had appeared for the examation last year, 48 cleared the examination.
“The ARB will look into whether the students concerned from Maharashtra used unfair means to clear the examination,” the Thane police chief said.
According to Singh, the Thane police have been in constant touch with the Director of Army examinations and exchanging information, ever since they got a tip-off about the possible leak of question papers.
The investigations have so far revealed that the students who managed to obtain the leaked question papers, had paid middlemen to the tune of Rs. 50 lakh to the middlemen and were to pay collectively a sum of Rs. 1.35 crore before or immediately after the examination which came to be cancelled.
The key players in the scam were the directors and owners of private coaching institutes, a majority of whom are currently in the custody, had contacted the students from other coaching institutes and offered them to provide leaked question papers for a price.
Meanwhile, the police identified three accused persons currently in the custody of the Nagpur Army officials as Ravinder Kumar, Dharamvir Singh, Nikam Kumar Pandey, who are among the 21 persons arrested in connection with the scam.
The others arrested so far include: Ranjit Jadhav (27) of Satara from the Para Military force, Ramappa lundappa Patole (48) of Pune, a retired Army man,, Mahendra Sonawane (31), currently working with the Army, Depot Unit, Kirkee, Pune, Subash Nirmale (50) of Akola, the owner of the Captain Subash Nirmale Career Academy, Jaikumar Shankar Velkode ( 31) of Wardha owner of the Tango Charli Academy of Nagpur, Sandeep Nagre(31) and Kiran Gamne (32), both from Nashik of the Nashikkar Career Academy of Nashik.
The arrested persons have been booked under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent),420 (cheating), 120-B ( conspiracy) of the IPC and also sections 72 of the IT Act and also section 13(1), 13(‘c) and 13(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.