Maharashtra TET paper leak: Month later, ‘mastermind’, aide arrested from Bihar

Around 1 am Saturday, a team from Thane Police took custody of Gupta and the ‘bait’ Indrajit Sinha from Samastipur in Bihar and brought him to Thane.

Sources in Thane police said that they had studied the past trend where Gupta, who is accused of being involved in other paper leaks, would go absconding in one part of the country and emerge in another under a new identity.

ALSO READ | A shoe, Rs 8,000, no CCTV: How Maharashtra’s TET paper was leaked

“We arrested two people who had provided him fake Aadhaar cards and other identity documents under various names. His wife who had been transferring money him had also been arrested to ensure he had no assistance from outside,” an officer said.

“While we found some details about the role of Indrajit Sinha, who was close to Gupta in the past as well, in the TET paper leak case as well, we did not arrest him. In the absence of others to help him, we had a sense that Gupta would reach out to him,” a source said.

While they had other relatives and those linked to Gupta on the radar in case he reached out to him, their focus remained Sinha. “We had prepared a list of 15 – 20 people he could possibly reach out to for help. Sinha was on top of the list,” the official said.

However, as days turned to weeks, there was no update either from technical surveillance or the local Bihar police station. The police teams too had visited a couple of times but it did not bear any fruit. “We feared he had crossed into another country using the porous border,” the officer said.

As per sources, on Thursday, the Thane police received a tip off about someone having contacted and later visited Sinha at Samastipur, which also happens to be where Gupta grew up.

“A team was sent there immediately and around 1am when out team raided the spot, they found Gupta along with Sinha. Both of them were taken into custody. To ensure they do not manage to flee, the next available flight to Maharashtra – headed to Pune – was taken by the team and the duo was brought to the city,” the officer said.

An officer said that while Gupta, a former coaching class teacher, kept moving states as he was on the run, it will only be after his interrogation that they will find out how he managed to be on the run for a month. The total number of persons arrested in the case has now reached 14.

The exam leak came to light two days before the TET examination date of June 28 for which nearly six lakh teachers from across the state were to appear. The Thane City police received a tip-off from a person in Bhiwandi who claimed he had been approached by three people with a copy of the TET question paper.

A raid was carried out, and it turned out that the accused actually had the question papers meant to be used for the TET examination. The case gained urgency as it came close on the heels of the NEET-UG paper leak that came to light on May 12, 2026.

Eventually, the police traced the paper leak to an Agra-based printing press, Mahim Patran Pvt Ltd, where two current employees and a former employee are alleged to have hidden the question paper beneath their shoe insoles and walked out of the press. They had allegedly been cultivated by the main accused for just Rs 8,000.

The question papers meant for Maharashtra teachers had been printed at a press in Agra so that its identity remained confidential, with only the head of the examination council dealing with the press, in keeping with the long-standing practice of printing question papers outside the state to maintain secrecy.

However, Gupta had allegedly cultivated people working at the press and would try to leak question papers printed there, officials said.