Arrested Army Officer Leaked Recruitment Exam Question Paper For Rs 3 Lakh, Involved Wife Too: Pune Police

Mubarak Ansari
Pune, 25th May 2021: An investigation by Pune city police has revealed that a Lieutenant Colonel, who was tasked with printing the question paper for the Army relation recruitment examination, leaked it for Rs three lakh. He had sent the question paper to his wife who wrote down the questions on a paper and sent him its image on WhatsApp which was then circulated by other accused persons to candidates, police informed the court on Tuesday.

The police custody remand of Lt Col Bhagat Preetsingh Bedi (44) of Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) Centre, Secunderabad, has been extended till May 28.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime 2) Laxman Borate submitted to the court, “Lt Col Bedi was the presiding officer of the printing committee. He had sent a question paper to the other accused written in English with 50 questions and options. The question paper has been recovered from his house in Secunderabad. He had taken a photo on his mobile during the printing of the question paper and sent the photo to his wife’s mobile and asked her to send the questions after writing them on a paper. The involvement of his wife in the crime will be investigated.”

“The arrested accused Bedi has confessed to the crime. He has told us that the question paper was sent to the arrested accused Vira Prasad Kotiswami Narnepati (41) through WhatsApp from his mobile before the examination. In return, Narnepati had paid Rs three lakh to accused Bedi, out of which Rs 1.5 lakh have been recovered. Bedi had also sent the question paper to Nitesh Soni who is on duty under his command. Bedi is said to have given his phone to Soni to destroy the mobile evidence used in the crime. The matter is to be investigated”, ACP Borate said.

Lt Col Bedi was arrested from Secunderabad on May 17, while Narnepati, a storekeeper with central ordnance depot in Delhi, was arrested from his residence on May 14. Till now, a total of nine accused persons including three serving Army officers and two serving Jawans have been arrested in the case.

As per the FIR registered at Wanawadi police station, around 30,000 candidates from across the country were to appear for the test at 40 different centers on February 28 this year. However, the Southern Command Liaison Unit (SCLU) of the Military Intelligence (MI) received a tip-off about the paper leak and informed the Pune police. Accordingly, police arrested five persons, including two serving Army jawans.

The leak was detected a few hours before the exam. The all-India common entrance exam (CEE) for Army relation recruitment was cancelled as the leaked paper matched 100 percent with the original one.

Every year Indian Army conducts a special recruitment drive for the dependent of Army personnel which is popularly known as Unit Headquarters (UHQ) Quota recruitment or Indian Army relation recruitment.