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Paper leak racket busted: Chandigarh fireman ‘Paperwala’ among 7 held

After an FIR was registered at Janakpuri Police Station under relevant sections of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, investigators began questioning the two candidates.

Arrested accused Deepak and Sonu in police custody. (Express Photo)

5 min readNew DelhiAug 8, 2026 07:21 AM IST First published on: Aug 7, 2026 at 09:54 PM IST

Two candidates appearing for a Lower Divisional Clerk (LDC) examination at the Central Sanskrit University in Delhi were allegedly caught using concealed electronic devices to receive answers, leading the Delhi Police to an interstate paper-leak syndicate allegedly being run for more than two years by a Chandigarh Fire Department fireman, officers said. The fireman, Sonu Kumar, also known as “Paperwala”, was arrested while allegedly trying to broker the leak of another Haryana government examination, police said.

Apart from Sonu, the six arrested accused have been identified as job aspirants Arti and Hemant; Hemant’s brother Rinku; Sanni, who worked as a staffer at the Delhi University, and Deepak and Virender, who worked as middlemen.

How police busted the racket

On July 26, candidates were appearing for an exam for the post of Lower Divisional Clerk (LDC) at the Central Sanskrit University in Delhi. Minutes into the examination, invigilators in a room noticed something off, according to police. One of the candidates, Aarti (24), was constantly stretching her ear. She was found to be fiddling with a Bluetooth earpiece, and someone was constantly speaking to her. Soon, invigilators noticed another candidate Hemant (23) readjusting a button on his shirt. “It was not a button but a camera of a small Samsung phone. Since the camera is in the middle of the phone, it looked like a button from far away. He was also carrying a Bluetooth device fitted with a SIM card and had hidden tiny nano earbuds,” said a senior police officer. Both were detained during the examination. Soon, what appeared to be an isolated case of malpractice turned into an investigation spanning three states and ended with the arrest of seven people, including Sonu Kumar.

Uncovering the racket

After an FIR was registered at Janakpuri Police Station under relevant sections of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, investigators began questioning the two candidates. Hemant allegedly told the police that the electronic devices had been arranged by his elder brother, Rinku, through another man, Virender.
“Rinku and Virender had known each other since long as they are from nearby villages in Rohtak,” said a police officer.
The so-called price “for clearing the recruitment examination”, investigators said, had been fixed at Rs 12 lakh.
Similar was the case of Aarti, who hails from Jind in Haryana. Her account details revealed a transaction of around Rs. 50,000 to a man named Sanni, who is also from a village near Aarti’s. “She disclosed that her friend Sanni had supplied her with a customised mobile phone, Bluetooth device, SIM card and nano earbuds that would allow her to share the question paper from inside the examination hall and receive answers from outside,” DCP Hareshwar Swami said.
The arrangement, police said, was worth Rs 10 lakh, which was to be paid after Aarti qualified.
The disclosures led investigators to arrest Rinku and Virender. Sanni was arrested soon afterwards.
During the questioning, he allegedly identified another man, Deepak, who, according to police, acted as an intermediary and coordinated candidates for the racket. Their deal, investigators said, had been struck for Rs 8 lakh.
A team led by Inspector Dinesh Kumar began piecing together the larger network using technical surveillance, social media analysis and electronic evidence.
As investigators dug deeper, Deepak allegedly told police he was working under the direction of Sonu Kumar, better known as Sonu Maan.

The ‘Paperwala’

Police said surveillance and intelligence inputs eventually led the team to Dadri Bypass Road in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri district. When police showed his picture in the village, locals recognised him instantly. They traced this man sitting in a car with an earpiece, allegedly trying to weasel another deal with students appearing for a Haryana government exam. Kingpin Sonu was arrested on the spot., “Searches led to the recovery of a tablet allegedly linked to a foreign WhatsApp account, customised mobile phones, Bluetooth devices, nano earbuds, SIM cards and other electronic equipment that investigators believe was used to transmit answers to candidates inside examination halls,” DCP Swami said.
Investigators alleged that he procured customised electronic devices, arranged answer keys and related answers to candidates through a network of agents.
Police said Sanni, employed as a laboratory attendant at Delhi University’s Lady Irwin College, allegedly identified candidates willing to pay for government jobs, while Deepak coordinated logistics and supplied the electronic devices.