Ranchi:
A total of 159 candidates, appearing for the Jharkhand Excise Constable Competitive Examination (JECCE) 2023, and five others, were arrested on Sunday over allegations of paper leak, according to a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI). A senior official said that the five main accused are part of a gang involved in irregularities in competitive examinations.
Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) Chairman Prashant Kumar said over 159 students were arrested, after the Ranchi SSP received a tip-off that a large number of students gathered at a building in Rargaon under Tamar police station limits.
“The students were provided four sets of question papers, which were claimed to be the questions of the JECC examination. The question papers provided in printed and digital formats were seized. Those, however, did not exactly match with the questions asked in the examination today,” Kumar told reporters.
According to a statement issued by the JSSC, it was found in an investigation that the accused candidates were brought to the location by the agents of the gang, charging Rs 10 to 15 lakh per aspirant, to provide them with the exam questions and answers.
“These candidates had handed over their mobile phones and admit cards to the gang members to avoid being caught by the police. Some candidates had also issued bank cheques in the names of the gang members,” it said.
The main accused has been an active member of the ‘Solver Paper Leak’ gang, the statement said. A resident of Jahanabad in Bihar, he has allegedly been involved in several paper leak cases, including the Rajasthan clerk recruitment exam, NEET exam, Bihar community health officers recruitment exam and Uttar Pradesh review and assistant review officers preliminary exam, the release stated.
“Interrogation is underway, while police raids are on to nab others involved in this,” the JSSC chairman said.
Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) staged demonstrations at some places against Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the wake of the development, claiming that the state government was playing with the future of the youth.
The BJP’s Ranchi Mahanagar unit, and those in East and West Singhbhum districts burnt effigies of the chief minister in protest. They also demanded that the examination should be conducted afresh.
