The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak case has now snowballed into a major controversy with Opposition parties, including the Congress and the BJP, alleging that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) was involved in the scam. Bahujan Samaj Party president RS Praveen Kumar alleged that the TSPSC is filled with the relatives of the Chief Minister and that they are involved in the scam. Congress and BJP state presidents, Revanth Reddy and Bandi Sanjay, respectively, have been summoned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), asking them to provide evidence for their claims.
Bandi Sanjay alleged that the leaders of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) were involved in the paper leak scam, and that relatives of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao managed to get government jobs through illegal means. Following this, the SIT issued him a notice, asking to appear before it and submit all available information about the case. The BJP chief, who was asked to appear before Friday, March 24, is yet to appear before the SIT.
Telangana Congress president Revanth Reddy was similarly summoned by the SIT for his allegation that Thirupati Bhandari, the personal assistant (PA) to IT Minister KT Rama Rao (KTR), was involved in the paper leak. Revanth alleged that many aspirants who were from Malyal mandal (Karimnagar district), to which Thirupati belongs, scored more than 100 marks in the exams conducted last year. “The personal assistant of KTR has links with the second accused (Raja Sekhar) in the paper leak case and the PA and the accused belong to neighbouring villages,” Revanth stated.
On March 24, amid detention of key Congress leaders, Revanth Reddy went to the SIT’s office in Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad. Afterwards, he alleged that the SIT had summoned him only to intimidate him, and questioned why the police did not summon Minister KTR, who had allegedly tried to downplay the scandal while the investigation was still underway. “Surprisingly, the SIT officials have not served similar notices to KTR, who had openly declared that two TSPSC employees were involved in the question paper leak case,” he said. He further added, “It is obvious that the government is trying to intimidate us by issuing notices to us for making public whatever evidence we had in the question paper leak case.”
On March 11, the TSPSC announced the postponement of the exam for appointments to the post of town planning building overseer that had been scheduled for the next day, on account of “suspected hacking.” The TSPSC filed a complaint in this regard with the Begum Bazaar police. After initial investigations, the police arrested nine persons on March 13 — TSPSC assistant section officer (ASO) P Praveen Kumar (32); network administrator A Raja Sekhar (35); Renuka (35) a school teacher; technical assistant L Dhakya (38); K Rajeshwar (33), K Neelesh Nayak (28), P Gopal Nayak (29), K Srinivas (30) and K Rajendra Nayak (31).
The accused were arrested under sections 379 (punishment for theft), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, section 66 (B), (C), and 70 of the Information Technology Act, and section 4 of Telangana Public Examination (Prevention of Malpractice and Unfair Means) Act.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (south-west Hyderabad) Kiran Khare said that the prime accused Praveen, who is also the PA to a secretary in TSPSC, reached out to Raja Sekhar, the network administrator, to access the question paper by hacking into TSPSC computers. The stolen question paper was copied on to a pen-drive and sold to the other accused.
On March 22, the SIT overseeing the case arrested three more persons who allegedly bought the leaked question papers from Praveen and Raja Sekhar. Praveen, who appeared for the Group-1 exam, secured 103 marks in the preliminary examination. Shameem, another TSPSC employee who wrote the exam, too was arrested for allegedly buying the leaked question paper.
A total of 12 persons have been arrested by the SIT of the Hyderabad police for their alleged involvement in the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak. The findings of the police investigation forced the Commission to cancel the recruitment exams for the posts of assistant executive engineer, assistant engineer, including the group I preliminary tests, and postpone the town planning building overseer and veterinary assistant surgeon exams. The police suspect the involvement of all 121 candidates, who scored more than 100 marks in the preliminary exams, in the question paper leak. The incident has affected the credibility of the exams held by the TSPSC. Around 2.86 lakh aspirants had appeared for the Group I posts exams.
Responding to the accusations against the Chief Minister, KTR, who is also his son, threatened to send legal notices. “Dragging the Telangana government and me into this matter without understanding the autonomous nature of the constitutionally-constituted Public Service Commission proves their ignorance,” he said. KTR alleged that the BJP and Congress were conspiring to stall the recruitment process.
“It is deplorable that these leaders are making attempts to damage the self-esteem of the youth by linking unrelated death incidents to the TSPSC issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has sought a status-report on the paper leak from the TSPSC.