CBI files first chargesheet in SSC paper leak

New Delhi: The CBI has filed its first chargesheet in the 2017 Combined Graduate Level (CGL) paper leak case against Sandeep Mathur, Akshay Kumar Malik, and Dharmender, officials here said.

The probe agency had arrested the three accused in June this year, after having found their involvement, during the course of the investigation. At the time of their arrests, the CBI had also conducted searches at the premises of Mathur, Dharmender, and Malik in Delhi and Ghaziabad.

The central probe agency has alleged that all three of them had a crucial role in leaking papers of the 2017 online CGL examination, which is 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.

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.