8 held, FIR against 11 as Gujarat govt admits to GSSSB paper leak

Among the accused is a candidate contesting the elections Sunday for the post of Sarpanch in the Poglu village of Sabarkantha. Three of the accused also include those who appeared for the exam last Sunday.

The accused named in the FIR include Jayesh Patel, Jashvant Patel, Deval Patel, Dhruv Barot, Mahesh Patel, Chintan Patel, Kuldip Patel, Darshan Vyas, Satish Patel alias Happy, Suresh Patel and Mahendra Patel. All the accused are from Sabarkantha.

Mahendra Patel, a resident of the Poglu village in Prantij, is contesting the election for the post of Sarpanch in his village. Dhruv Barot, Chintan Patel and Suresh Patel are among the candidates who appeared in the examination.

The FIR was registered at the Prantij police station with the Local Crime Branch inspector of Sabarkantha MD Champavat as the complainant. Superintendent of Police Neeraj Badgujar confirmed the arrests.

As per the FIR, Jayesh Patel had procured the question paper of the recruitment examination although details of the manner in which he did it were not available. Jayesh conspired with others to sell the question paper to candidates in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh to make illegal financial gains. The FIR added the accused not only provided the question paper to around 16 candidates but also provided the resources to learn the answers and then reach their respective examination centres the next day.

The arrests and FIR came on a day when the state government admitted that the question paper for the recruitment examination for head clerk was leaked. Addressing media persons Friday, state Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi said the decision on cancelling the examination would be taken by the authorities after thorough discussions.

He said the home department was exploring possibilities of imposing more stringent penal provisions against the accused to set an example as deterrence against such crimes. So far, no involvement of any GSSSB official has been detected in the crime, he said, before adding a “360-degree investigation” was being conducted and that nobody is beyond suspicion.

“As soon as we came to know about the paper leak, 24 police teams were formed to detect the crime and to ensure the perpetrators do not get a chance to run away. Police of Sabarkantha and Gandhinagar districts are involved in the investigation,” Sanghavi said.

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The accused have been booked under sections of cheating and conspiracy. The FIR states that they conspired and aided the sale of the question paper and the answer key, and ensured it reached the candidates in at least four centres. The FIR was registered under the provisions of IPC 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 420 (cheating) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy).

The recruitment examination for 186 vacancies of head clerk was conducted by GSSSB on December 12. The written examination was taken by over 88,000 candidates.

The incident came to light when Yuvrajsinh Jadeja, the Vice-President of Gujarat Aam Aadmi Party’s youth wing, on December 13, alleged that he had evidence that the question paper was leaked a night before the exam and was sold at the rate of Rs 6 to Rs 12 lakh in various parts of the state. Jadeja, on Thursday, handed over the evidence of the paper leak to GSSSB Chairman Asit Vora.

In response to the government admission of the paper leak and registration of FIR, Jadeja demanded that the GSSSB Chairman be kept away from the details of the investigation. “As Chairman of the Board, he (Vora) was the authority of the strong rooms where the question papers were kept. He (Vora), among others, should also be questioned by the police. Police are yet to reach the kingpin (of the racket),” Jadeja said.

He also questioned the probe done to date. “So far, there is no investigation about the paper that got circulated on social media. Investigation in that aspect is very important (since it widened the reach of the leaked paper),” he said.

This is not the first time in recent times a state recruitment exam has been mired in controversy due to paper leaks. Jadeja said the modus-operandi adopted by the accused looks similar to the earlier instances of paper leaks in the state. He said the accused should be booked under sedition charge so that the menace of paper leak can be checked forever.

Senior Congress legislator and Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Sukhram Rathva questioned the state government’s intention in conducting impartial and clean recruitment through competitive examinations. He alleged the repeated paper leaks have left little for youths seeking government jobs to expect from the current state government.