Pune: Two Army Jawans Among 4 Arrested In Recruitment Exam Paper Leak Case
Mubarak Ansari
Pune, 2 March 2021: The Crime Branch of Pune city police have arrested two Army Jawans in connection with the paper leak of the common entrance exam (CEE) for Army relation recruitment. The pan India exam which was to be held on February 28 was cancelled as the leak was detected by the Military Intelligence (MI) hours before the schedule.
Every year Indian Army conducts a special recruitment drive for the dependents of Army personnel which is popularly known as Unit Headquarters (UHQ) Quota recruitment or Indian Army relation recruitment.
The arrested persons have been identified as Kishore Mahadev Giri (40) and Madhav Sheshrao Gite(38) of Malegaon in Baramati taluka and Army Jawans Gopal Yuvraj Koli (31) and Uday Dattu Awti (23), both posted with Bombay Engineer Group and Centre (BEG&C), Khadki.
According to the FIR registered against them at Wanowrie police station, Giri runs a private coaching centre for recruitment in the armed forces, Koli is physical training instruction at Training Battalion 2 of BEG&C and Awti is from regimental police (RP). Gite had assembled 14 candidates at Samruddhi Hotel in Vishrantwadi for giving them leaked question papers on the night of February 27.
According to officials, the accused persons charged Rs 4-5 lakh from each candidate for providing the question paper. This module was facilitating selection into the Army adopting corrupt practices in medicals and written exams.
While addressing a press conference today, Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta said that about 30,000 candidates were to appear for the exam at 40 centres across India. “We had received information from the Southern Command Military Intelligence team about the suspected paper leak. Accordingly, a Crime Branch team from Anti-Extortion Cell 1 nabbed the accused persons. Further investigation is going on about involvement of other persons and how the paper was leaked”, Gupta said.
The accused persons have been charged for offences under sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University, Board and Other Specified Examinations Act.
The action was taken under the guidance of Joint Commissioner of Police Dr Ravindra Shisve, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Morale, DCP (Crime) Shriniwas Ghadge and ACP (Crime 1) Surendranath Deshmukh.
The team included Senior Police Inspector Vithal Patil, Assistant Police Inspectors Sandip Buwa, Shirish Bhalerao, Police Sub Inspector Somnath Shendge, ASI Pandurang Wanjale, Yashwant Ombase, Head Constables Praveen Rajput, Madhukar Tupsaundar, Police Naik Nitin Kamble, Ashwini Kekan, Rajendra Landge, Gajanan Sonwalkar, Atul Sathe, Constables Prafull Chavan, Hanumant Kande and Piraji Bele.
