TSPSC paper leak scam: SIT files chargesheet, detects Rs 1.63-cr transactions

HYDERABAD: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed to probe into the leakage of question papers for the recruitment examinations of the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC), filed the preliminary chargesheet in the case in Nampally Court on Friday.

The SIT chargesheet stated that transactions worth Rs 1.63 crore had so far been detected in buying and selling of the TSPSC question papers. All the material evidence seized during the arrest of the accused persons were sent to the Central Forensic Laboratory, Ramanthapur, and experts' opinions were obtained.

So far, 49 persons have been arrested by the SIT officials in this case. About 16 of them are mediators while one person, currently residing in New Zealand, is still at large. Apart from them one more person A-11 (Nalagoppula Suresh) ex TSPSC employee was also given Group-1 question paper. Furthermore, three candidates were apprehended for engaging in malpractices by using a battery-operated device during the AEE entrance examination.

Disclosing the investigation details, Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP), Crime and SIT, Hyderabad, said in a press release that A-1 Pulidindi Praveen Kumar, an Assistant Section Officer (ASO) and (PA) to the Secretary of TSPSC, along with A-2 Atla Raja Shekar, an outsourcing employee working as a System/Network Administrator in TSPSC, conspired and gained unauthorized access to the confidential section's computer which stored and compiled question papers for various exams. The accused downloaded/copied the question papers of Group - 1, DAO, AEE, and AE exams into their pen drives. Subsequently, they shared these question papers with multiple candidates through intermediaries to make illicit profits, the SIT officer said.