SSC question paper leaked, five arrested

Five people, including a Delhi Police sub-inspector, were arrested here for making answers available to candidates taking examinations conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) through mobile phones, police said Monday.

The candidates were taking examinations conducted by the SSC for recruitment to various government jobs under the combined higher secondary level category. The examination was conducted Sunday across the country. 

Amit, 24, Rahul Dabas, 23, Manoj Verma, 32, Ajay Kumar, 26, and Kuldeep, 20, were arrested Sunday from a farm house in Delhi's Ladpur village, police said.

"Seven people were found in the farm house, operating the racket through mobile phones. Five were arrested, but two managed to escape," Ravindra Yadav, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), said.

"One of the absconders is reported to be working in the Railway Protection Force (RPF) as a sub-inspector and other is the brother of one the apprehended accused," said the officer.

A hunt is on to nab the missing men, both of whom have been identified, the officer said.

The accused confessed that they were sending answer keys of question papers of the combined higher secondary level examination conducted by SSC through mobile phones to candidates appearing for the examination.

"The accused were providing the answer keys through SMS. For this facilitation, they were charging lakhs of rupees from the candidates," the officer said.

Kumar, a sub-inspector of Delhi Police, revealed that he used his job within the police as a means to save other accused. Verma, who has earlier successfully taken the SSC's assistant grade examination, was involved in a similar scam in the past too, and has once before been arrested by Delhi Police.

Amit, who was selected in SSC's Lower Division Clerk (LDC)/data entry operator's examination in 2012, was allotted the post of LDC in a government press at Delhi's Maya Puri, but his joining was awaited.

"Preliminary investigation shows that this is a widespread racket which is likely to have multiple sources of leakage of papers," said Yadav.

"The mobile phones, having answer keys of all four sets of question papers in the SMS box, which were used by the accused persons to send the answer keys to aspiring candidates, have been seized," the officer said.