Three persons involved in CGL paper leak case, held
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three people in connection with the 2017 Combined Graduate Level (CGL) paper leak case, officials here said on Thursday.
The probe agency also conducted searches at four places, one in Delhi and three in Ghaziabad, all related to the arrested accused in the case and recovered incriminating documents. The CBI has alleged that Sandeep Mathur, Dharmender, and Akshay Kumar alias Akshay Kumar Malik had a crucial role in the 2017 CGL online examination paper leak, conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC).
While Malik was responsible for leaking the papers on social media, the other two, Mathur and Dharmender were the ones who brought interested candidates to be a part of the cheating scheme, the agency alleged. The case came to light when questions and answer keys of the CGL online exam were leaked on social media 20 minutes before the test began. Based on a complaint from an SSC staff, the CBI had initiated a preliminary enquiry, registering an FIR in the case in May 2018.
The scheme's scale was uncovered when the probe agency had named 18 accused in its FIR, including candidates, unknown officials of the SSC, and Sant Prasad Gupta, head of content at SIFY.
In a preliminary investigation, the CBI had allegedly found Gupta's involvement in the scheme as he was the one who prepared the questions and was the custodian of the question papers before it went through the appropriate chain of custody.
The SSC had entered into a contract with SIFY in 2016 to conduct the CGL examinations online instead of OMR mode.
The contract had specified the role of SIFY in making sure that questions or answer keys are not leaked or that the examination is not compromised through manipulated. However, on February 21, 2019, the questions and answer key to that day's test were leaked on social media and several students cheated on the examination by manipulating the test using remote access software.
This despite SIFY site supervisors present at examination centres, who were essentially in-charge of making sure that no suspicious software is installed in the candidates' computers. Mathur, Dharmender, and Akshay Kumar Malik were produced at a Delhi court, which remanded them to police custody till June 10.
