Gwalior : After Rajasthan and Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh also witnessed a paper leak issue where the NHM (National Health Mission) Contractual Staff Nurse recruitment exam paper got leaked hours before the exam.
The Gwalior Crime Branch on Tuesday busted an interstate gang and arrested eight persons involved in the paper leak from a hotel on Tekanpur Jhansi Highway in the district. The team also recovered exam paper, laptop, mobile phones, and printers from the spot.
The NHM Contractual Staff Nurse exam for 2284 posts was to be held at 36 centres in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior and Rewa in two shifts between 10am - 12pm and 3pm - 5pm on Tuesday (Feb 7). The exams, however, were cancelled.
Gwalior Senior Superintendent of police (SSP) Amit Sanghi said that the Gwalior Crime Branch had received information that a gang had arrived here for the nursing exam being conducted under NHM, which is luring the candidates who were participating in the exam and leaking some questions from the paper. Acting on the information, the police raided a dhaba on the Gwalior Jhansi Highway where some people were found who had laptops, printers and mobile phones. The candidates who were going to take the examination were also found along with them.
"Eight accused were arrested from the spot. Of these arrested accused, three accused are the resident of Gwalior, two accused from Prayagraj, two accused from Haryana and one from Bihar. But the mastermind is still absconding and a police team has been sent to find him. In the preliminary investigation it came to light that the absconding main accused is also a resident of Prayagraj," he added.
"When police interrogated the candidates, it came to light that they had received the question paper on mobile. They told the police that these questions would come in the exam in the evening shift. The answer was being shown to the candidates who were present there. They also explained the modus operandi of the gang that the accused used to take Rs 2 to 3 lakh per examinee. First they used to take the original documents of the candidates, when the question paper got a match in the exam after that they used to return the original documents after taking the money. The accused had taken the original documents of about 70 to 80 candidates," SSP Sanghi added.
"As the examination was cancelled, we are sending the recovered question paper to the Directorate to investigate at their level how many similarities there are in both the papers. A total of 39 mobile phones were recovered from possession of eight arrested accused and have been sent for forensic investigation," Sanghi said. He added that the crime branch registered a case under IPC Section 420, 120 B, section 66 E of IT Act and section 3, 4 of Madhya Pradesh Recognised Examinations Act. further investigation into the matter was on.