Balasore: Eight more people, including the alleged mastermind, were arrested Thursday in connection with the question paper leak of a recruitment exam conducted by the Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC), police said.
With the latest arrests, the number of people arrested in the case rose to 17, they said.
The OSSC on July 24 cancelled the main written examination for junior engineer (civil) after police confirmed the leak of the question paper of the test conducted on July 16.
Balasore’s Superintendent of Police Sagarika Nath said the investigation suggests that the question paper was leaked by one Virendra Singh, who worked at the printing press where the it was printed.
He hails from Bihar and was working as a helper at the printing press, she said.
“He came in contact with the mastermind Vishal Kumar Chaurasia. Vishal had told Virendra to supply him with any relevant information regarding the question papers being printed at his press,” the SP said.
Of the eight persons arrested on Thursday, two are from Bihar, one from West Bengal, while the remaining five are residents of Odisha, police said.
The mastermind, Vishal, is a government employee and was posted in Patna, they said.
He was involved in a similar question paper leak case, which was detected by Delhi Police.
His main associate, Bijendra Kumar, was earlier arrested in question paper leak cases in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, police said.
The racket tries to get their hands on the question papers after the final copy is printed and before it is sent to the examination centres, they said.
Earlier, nine people, including a woman, were arrested in connection with the case. While four of them were Bihar, one person was from Andhra Pradesh and the remaining four were from Odisha, police said.
PTI