Chandigarh Police starts looking for lapses on part of its officers

Mithilesh Pandey alias Guruji accused of JBT scam. Express file

CHANDIGARH POLICE has started the process of finding lapses on the part of its officers, who had failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated 90 days that resulted in bail for Mithilesh Pandey, alias Guruji, prime accused in the JBT question paper leak scam. Guruji got bail on October 8 and since then, he cannot be traced. SP Ravi Kumar, who was supervising the SIT, confirmed the development and said, “We have started looking into this and will find out the reasons for the delay in the filing of chargesheet.”

Punjab Vigilance Bureau, which had arrested Guruji at first, had also failed to file the chargesheet against him, resulting in him getting bail in a case under the Punjab VB. The bureau arrested Guruji in connection with the leak of several question papers related to the recruitment of several employees of the Punjab government, dating back to 2014 and 2015.

Guruji, along with his two other aides, S B Singh and Shailesh, was booked in another case related to the leak of question paper for the Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) exam on October 12. Singh and Shailesh are in police custody. Sources said, “It came to light that JB Singh was the mastermind, who cultivated his sources at a private press in Delhi, where the question paper got printed, and Guruji was one of the conduits. Shailesh and Guruji used to arrange candidates for the leaked question paper charging Rs 10 lakh from each candidate.” Sources said a team was dispatched to Lucknow to arrest Guruji from his native house but he was not found there.

On Friday, police had procured the custody of Shailesh and Singh for three days after an FIR was filed for leaking the question paper for the Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) exam, which took place for the posts of 548 teachers in February 2015. Shailesh and Singh were lodged in Model Burail Jail and police had applied for their production warrants on Thursday.

Sources in the Chandigarh Police said, “During the investigation of the earlier registered case against Guruji, it came to light that there was another module, which had leaked the question paper of TGT recruitment also and that was set at Panjab University and sent for printing to the same printing press, from where the question paper of the JBT teacher exam was leaked in Delhi. The other module was also headed by Guruji.” A case was registered at Sector 3 police station.