Vishal Chaurasia, the mastermind behind the Junior Engineer (Civil) Main written examination question paper leak racket, has been arrested along with eight others in Balasore, Odisha. He was operating a pan-Indian racket that carried out similar breaches in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
The 35-year-old native of Bihar is currently posted at the Advance Planning Division-II of the Rural Works Department in Patna. Chaurasia and his associates had their eyes on printing presses across those states where the question papers were being published, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
Their past leaks
Previously, with the help of his associates, Chaurasia had allegedly leaked the question papers for the exam conducted by the Central Staff Selection Commission during 2013-2014 for the recruitment of sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors in the Central Police Organisation (CPO). He had caught hold of the papers from a printing press in Allahabad.
Chaurasia was then arrested by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police. His close associate Bijendra Kumar was also held in connection with the question paper leak of Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission during 2013-14 and Bihar Public Service Commission in 2022, informed Balasore SP Sagarika Nath, under whose supervision the entire operation was carried out at present.
In the Balasore case, as per initial investigation, the question paper for JE (Civil) Main written examination, conducted by the Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC), was leaked from a printing press in Kolkata where another member of the gang, Virendra Singh, was employed as a helper. "Singh's brother and Chaurasia knew each other and it was the former who had introduced his sibling to the mastermind. Singh and Chaurasia were in contact for the last two months which was established by the call details records," Nath said.
Chaurasia received confirmation on July 11 that question papers of the JE (Civil) main written examination were being printed in the press and approached Bijendra to take the plan forward. However, preliminary investigation suggests no transaction took place between the accused and the candidates of JE (Civil) Main as the former was nabbed hours before the examination, Nath stated.
Balasore police have seized Rs 1 lakh from Singh which was paid by Chaurasia as advance for leaking the question paper. The traced bank accounts of the accused have been frozen till further investigation and the property registered in the name of each of them is being identified.
Out of the 17 persons arrested so far, six are from Bihar, nine from Odisha and one each from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Of them, one is a 29-year-old woman from Odisha. The examination was conducted on July 16 but was cancelled by OSSC after the scam surfaced, as per TNIE.