The Chandigarh Police have arrested a 24-year-old Rajasthan native for allegedly leaking the question paper of Haryana SSC ITI instructor examination. The police claimed to have recovered the audio recording, voice notes and WhatsApp chat between the prime accused, Nitish, who is a computer lab manager, and the 11 candidates who were to appear in the examination, Chandigarh SSP Nilambari Jagadale said. The Haryana SSC ITI instructor exam was to be held in different computer labs situated in Haryana and Chandigarh. The officials of police station 31 were on patrolling near in the Industrial Area phase II, when at about 10.30 am, when they got a tip-off that four persons— Rakesh, Nitish, Manjit and Amit — are going to supply the question paper to the candidates for Rs 10-15 lakh, and they are gathered at Mapple Tech, at Industrial Area Phase II, Chandigarh. Police said that they found Nitish, manager of Mapple Tech, talking regarding supplying of question paper on mobile phone with Rakesh and Manjit Singh. Thus raids were conducted and Nitish and the candidates were found present. During interrogation, the accused Nitish disclosed that Rakesh and others would supply him question paper for the exam and further he would supply the question paper to the candidates and they were gathered to collect the question paper. But due to some problem, the question paper for morning shift could not be arranged and further the question paper for evening shift exam to be collected and the same would be supplied to the candidates accordingly, police claimed. Briefing the modus operandi of the accused, the SSP told that they used to open computer labs and through their brokers, they contact the potential candidates and allure them for providing the question paper before the exam. The payment mode has been decided in different slabs as they had called the candidates to a certain place (computer labs) before the night of the exam for briefing and training. Nitish has been booked under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120 b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at PS 31, Chandigarh. Meanwhile, 11 candidates identified as Kapil Dev (29), Kapil (37), Neeraj (29), Narinder Singh (33), Ajay Kumar (30), Vikas (25), Anudeep (29), Sandeep (34), Naveen Bhardwaj (28), Pradeep (29), Deepika (35), Jagat Singh (36) and Ravi (30) — all residents of Haryana — have been apprehended for questioning in the matter. Police also seized mobiles of some candidates and audio notes, WhatsApp chats with other accused persons is also available in seized mobiles. The accused Nitish will be produced in the court on Friday to procure police remand to arrest the remaining accused in the matter.
