Sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) arrested 7 persons including a lower Division Clerk (lDC) with the Archaeological Survey of India, and a police constable presently posted in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters in Delhi, and claimed to have busted a inter-state gang involved in minting money either through paper leakage or providing answers to the candidates appearing in Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examinations.
The trap was made in Meerut on Sunday and besides 7 mobile phones, two cars, cash and other items, team members also recovered documents pointing towards the above operation of the gang in an organised manner. The arrest also included three examinees. The team member would now take the kingpins in police custody remand to grill them further and extract the names and details of other members who were helping them in the SSC.
Briefing the media persons here on Monday evening, IG (law and Order) Satish Ganesh said that the STF was getting inputs that an inter-state gang was operational which either get the papers of MSc’s Combined Higher Secondary level Examination and Graduate level Examinations conducted by SSC leaked or provided solved answers through mail, watsapp etc to the examinees during the examination time. He said that the STF (Western) unit has been given the task to develop the information and arrest the culprits.
Ganesh further said that they get success when the STF team through surveillance learnt that the gang was active in Meerut to provide answers to the examinees appearing in Combined Higher Secondary level Examination-2014 after taking money, so team members rushed to the district. The team members further develop the information and on basis of a tip-off that the gang members were seen on cars near MD Inter College in Sadar area of Meerut, they swung into action and trapped the accused near Hathi Khas on Sunday afternoon.
He disclosed that all the seven held were taken to local police station, where the gang leader revealed his identity as Neeraj Chabra (lower Division Clerk (lDC) with the Archaeological Survey of India), a native of Sonipat in Haryana, Raj Singh ( police constable in Haryana and present posted at CBI HQ in New Delhi), also hailing from Sonipat, while others disclosed their identity as Manish, Narendra, Janendra, Vijendra, all residents of Sonipat, and Vijay Kumar, residing in New Delhi. The gang leaders confessed of facilitating the three examinees Manish, Narendra, and Vijay Kumar, with the right answers in the SSC-exam on WatsApp. They also revealed the name of one Rahul aka Rinku, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, and disclosed that he had made a group on Watsapp to provide key to answers.
Besides the above, the principal and examination superintendent of SD Inter College also held Deepak of Jind in Haryana and Prabhat Tomar, hailing from Ramala in Bagpat, when they were using the answer keys provided by the same above gang members on Sunday. The College authorities registered a separate case against them with the Sadar Bazar police station in Meerut. Further investigations are on in the matter. In June 2013, also the STF nabbed 7 gang members along with the leader, Arvind Rana, running a similar gang having same modus operandi.