The Balasore police in Odisha arrested eight people on Thursday, including the alleged mastermind, in the paper leak of the Odisha Staff Selection Commission's (OSSC) junior engineer exam held on July 16. The alleged mastermind was identified as 35-year-old Vishal Kumar Chaurasia, a native of Bihar working in the Accountant General's office in Patna. Police also nabbed the source of the leak - Virendra Singh alias Paswan, 53, a printing press helper outside Odisha where the papers were printed, said Balasore SP Sagarika Nath. Nath said preliminary investigation suggested that Paswan, who originally hails from Bihar and works outside the state, came in contact with Vishal, who belongs to the same place as Paswan’s brother. “Telephonic communication establishes that Paswan and Vishal were in touch for the last two months, during which Vishal proposed Paswan to supply him with any relevant information regarding the question papers being printed at his press,” said the Balasore SP. On July 11, Vishal received a confirmation from Paswan about getting the question paper related to the main examination for JE (civil) scheduled on July 16. “He (Vishal) then contacted Bijendra Kumar, a Bihar resident, who works as his main associate who has already been arrested on July 16, while distributing the question papers,” said Nath. Hours before the examination on July 16, the police had arrested nine persons from a hotel at Digha in West Bengal in connection with the case. Days later, OSSC chairperson Abhay announced about cancellation of the examination conducted on July 16. He said it will be again held on September 3. The OSSC has been conducting the combined technical services recruitment to fill total 1,225 vacancies of which 1,008 are for the post of junior engineer (civil) and remaining 217 are for the assistant training officer. Police sources said Vishal was previously involved in the question paper leak incident for recruitment of sub-inspectors (SI) and assistant sub-inspectors (ASI) in the Central Police Organisation conducted by Central Staff Selection Commission in 2013-14. The case was detected by the Crime branch of the Delhi Police. “Vishal had then leaked the question paper from a printing press located in Allahabad using one of his then associate in a similar fashion,” the SP said. Vishal joined as a divisional accountant in the Accountant General’s office in Patna in the year 2016. Prior to this job, he was in the post of tax assistant in the income tax department at Durgapur in West Bengal, said official sources. The main associate of the mastermind Bijendra Kumar was previously arrested in the case of question paper leak of Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission in the year 2013-14 and Bihar Public Service Commission in the year 2022. According to the Balasore SP, the modus operandi of the racket was getting the leaked paper after printing and providing it to candidates in exchange for fees, half before exams and half after results. “They then take away the original certificates of the candidates and provide them with the leaked question paper. After the exams were over, if the questions matched, the candidates were asked to pay half the amount instantly and the other half after the results are declared,” said Nath. No transactions were detected in this case as the exam was called off during raids. But the accused's bank accounts are frozen, police said. No OSSC or government official has been found involved yet, though investigation continues.
