4 min readMumbaiUpdated: Aug 28, 2026 12:03 PM IST
Rutuja's ex-boyfriend, Gaurav Patil, who had also allegedly received the leaked question paper, sent a tip-off on the leak to the MPSC. (Express Photo)
Rutuja Patil, the 25-year-old who scored 7th rank on the provisional merit list for the MPSC exam, was instructed to give wrong answers for 10 questions in the exam meant for drug inspectors held on March 22 this year. She was told by other accused that if she answered all 100 questions right, it would raise suspicion.
An official said that the Maharashtra Public Service Commission’s drug inspector’s exam had been conducted after a gap of nearly a decade, due to which there was a lot of interest.
The police have found that of the 294 questions that were leaked from the meta set from which the final question paper was to be finalised, 77 actually appeared in the question paper.
“Apart from the 77 she answered right as she had prior access, she answered 14 more correctly and overall gave right answers to 91 questions and stood 7th,” a source said.
Explaining how the questions were leaked, an officer said that Vishveshwar Nakate, an Assistant Section Officer from MPSC, had the job of keeping the meta set under his care. From the meta set, he typed 300 questions on his laptop and printed them.
This was handed over to Abhijit Lendve, Under Secretary of the Public Service Commission, in the parking lot of the Commission’s office building before the examination.
Lendve gave the question set he received to the accused, Gopal Marathe, in the parking lot of the Commission’s office building.
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The question set in the possession of Gopal Marathe was given to Pravin Patil, who ran a coaching class, in the premises of the Commission’s office before the examination.
This was later given to Rutuja’s father, who handed it over to her. The girl sent it to her boyfriend Gaurav Patil on March 20, two days before the examination on March 22.
An officer said, “She gave the paper to Gaurav as his brother too was appearing for the same exam. However, his brother did not clear the exam. Gaurav claims that this was because he did give his brother the paper due to sibling rivalry.”
The police are, however, taking this claim with a pinch of salt as they believe he wants to save his brother. “Another angle to this is that Rutuja had been asking him for part of the Rs five lakhs her father had paid, and he did not give the paper to his brother or pretended not to so that he wouldn’t have to pay,” an officer said.
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The officer said that they are checking if part of the reason why the couple parted ways was due to a fight over sharing the money paid to procure the paper.
“We’ve also found that the girl’s family was not willing to get her married to Gaurav due to which she was staying away from him,” the officer said.
An officer said that they are checking if Pravin Patil, who runs a coaching class, had in the past too used the same network to leak papers for other exams conducted by MPSC.
So far, a total of six persons have been arrested, while two others, including Rutuja, have been named as wanted accused in the case. “ We will seek their custody during the course of the probe,” the officer added. The six accused are in police custody till September 2.
Mohamed Thaver is a highly specialized journalist with the Expertise and Authority required to report on complex law enforcement and legal issues. With a career dedicated to the crime beat for over a decade, his work provides readers with informed and trustworthy insights into Maharashtra's security and justice systems.
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Core Focus: Has been exclusively covering the crime beat for over a decade, building deep, specialized knowledge in the field.
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Mohamed Thaver’s long-standing specialization in the crime beat—combined with his focus on technological aspects like cyber crime and his direct coverage of major institutions like the Mumbai Crime Branch and the Maharashtra Home Department—underscores his Trustworthiness and status as an expert source for detailed and reliable journalism on law and order.
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