Pune: Bail Plea Of 8 Accused Rejected In Army Recruitment Paper Leak Case; Army Not Inclined To Try Accused In Court Martial
Pune, 27th August 2021: Army personnel, two Major rank officers, and a Lieutenant Colonel are arrested by Pune city police in a recruitment paper leak case. The Maharashtra state government had filed an application in the court on the basis of legal provisions for the case to be tried by the Army court-martial. It was approved and the letter was sent by the court to the Southern Command headquarters. However, the Army has shown its inability to take the case, Special Public Prosecutor Prem Kumar Agarwal told the court.
The bail application of the eight arrested accused in the case was denied by Special Judge S B Hedau. The accused who were denied bail include two majors and an academy driver. Kishore Mahadev Giri (age 40, resident of Baramati), Madhav Sheshrao Gite (age 39, Sampier Vihan Colony), Gopal Yuvraj Koli (age 31, resident of Dighi Camp), Uday Dattu Auti (age 23, resident of Khadki), Bharat Laxman Adakmol (37, resident of Jalgaon), Major Thiru Murugan Thangvelu (47, resident of Wellington, Tamil Nadu), Vasant Vijay Kilari (45), Vira Prasad Kotiswami Nargepati (41), both of Residents of Andhra Pradesh) are the names of those whose bail was rejected.
The investigation has revealed that the accused took Rs 5 lakh from each candidate to get the paper of the written test of the army recruitment process one day before the test. The accused had applied for bail. It was opposed by Special Public Prosecutor Agarwal.
Lieutenant Colonel Bhagat Preetsingh Bedi conspired with all the accused. They coordinated and sent the papers through Whatsapp to the candidates. Correspondence has been sent to WhatsApp’s US headquarters to retrieve WhatsApp data from all the accused’s mobile phones, informed Adv. Agarwal.
According to police, Lt. Col Bhagat Preet Singh Bedi (45), who was posted as the chief recruitment officer at the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) centre in Secunderabad, is the main accused in the paper leak case.
As per the FIR registered at Wanowrie police station, about 30,000 candidates from across the country were to appear for the test at 40 different centres on February 28th 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.
Later it was found that an officer had sent the paper to the accused. Police arrested other accused.
