Two more persons have been arrested in connection with the leaked question paper for the First Division Assistant (FDA) exam of the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) taking the total number of people arrested to 16. The exam was supposed to be held on 24 January by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) but was cancelled when the Committee learned that the question paper had been leaked.
Earlier, six persons were arrested on Sunday by the Crime Central Branch of police on Sunday in Bengaluru in connection with this case. The Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Bengaluru Sandeep Patil said, “We have seized the question paper, Rs 24 lakh cash and three stolen vehicles from them.”
Based on a tip-off given to Jnanabharathi Police Station, a special team conducted raids in Ullal where the accused were arrested, a senior police officer from Central Crime Branch (CCB) said. The police also added that the stolen vehicles were being used to circulate the question papers to those who had paid some money in advance, a few days earlier. The KPSC informed that all of them were taken into custody for questioning.
On Sunday, CCB Joint Commissioner Sandeep Patil, in a statement, said that the inputs were given by Rachappa and Chandru, the kingpins of the racket, helped arrest eight more in connection to the case on Sunday, taking the total of arrested persons to 14.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said on Sunday that officials who were allegedly involved in the question paper leak may be dismissed from service in response to the further arrests made in the case. “We will initiate stringent action against all those involved in the case. I am not only ready to suspend them but also dismiss them from the service,” he added.
The KPSC was to conduct this exam for 1,112 vacancies for the post of First Division Assistant and a cumulative of 3.75 lakh aspirants had applied for the post across the state.