Members of the inter-state gang involved in the leaking of a PMET question paper in police custody at the Sector 17 police station in Chandigarh on Sunday.
— A Tribune photograph |
Chandigarh, July 2
In a major breakthrough, the Chandigarh Police busted a five-member inter-state gang allegedly involved in leaking the question paper of the Punjab Pre Medical Entrance Test (PMET) and helping candidates clear the exam. The Chandigarh Police said “the connivance of university authorities in the scam, cannot be ruled out”.
The police claimed that the accused were taking anything between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 18 lakh from the candidates and had taken them to Delhi to prepare them for the test. The police recovered 21 photocopies of the question paper of the test.
Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, the police said they used to contact the candidates over the phone. One of the accused, Jatinder Kumar, a Delhi resident, was working as coordinator in a college at Delhi providing assistance in getting admissions to colleges. He had established contacts with aspiring candidates and lured them to settle the deals for clearing the test. The gang usually took the candidate along with them a day before the test to some undisclosed place. They used to take blank cheques from the parents along with the original documents of the candidates to keep them under control. The practice session lasted for six to eight hours.
Giving details of the sequence that led to the busting of the gang, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Sector 17 Police Station, Inspector Jagbir Singh, said after getting information the police nabbed Jatinder Kumar from Sector 17 on Saturday. During questioning Jatinder Kumar further provided information about the other members of the gang.
Subsequently, a police team was sent to Delhi on Saturday night, which nabbed the accused red-handed while preparing 18 candidates for the exams from a flat in Sector 13, Rohini in New Delhi. They had provided solved copies of a question paper. All the candidates were minors and were later released by the police. The police said they would also verify their antecedents and connivance in the entire episode.
Those arrested have been identified as Dr Anil Bhelia, a Lucknow resident, Devinder Singh, a Sirhind-based poultry farm owner, Kumar Ranjit Singh, hailing from Nalanda in Bihar and Rajinder Kumar, a Delhi-based share broker. The police said Devinder was earlier arrested in connection with the leakage of a question paper of an exam in Amritsar.
A case of cheating, criminal conspiracy and theft under Sections of 420- 120-B and 380 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered in this regard. Later in the day, the accused were produced before a local court, which remanded them to police custody till July 7.
