PUNE: The city police on Sunday formally arrested an Army major after taking him into custody on Saturday from Wellington in Tamil Nadu and bringing him here in connection with the question paper leak related to the entrance exam for recruitment of soldiers (general duty), which had to be cancelled on February 28.
“We shall produce him before the cantonment court on Monday to seek his custodial remand,” said a Pune police crime branch inspector, investigating the case registered with the Wanowrie police.
With the major’s arrest, a total of nine persons have landed in police custody so far in the two paper leak cases — one registered with the Wanowrie police and the other with the Vishrantwadi police. The police have not ruled out more arrests, including officer-rank individuals.
Army sources, who are in the know of the development, told TOI that the arrested officer was a special list commissioned major — someone rising from the rank of a junior or non-commissioned officer or other rank. He is suspected of having forwarded the leaked question paper to one of the suspects arrested in the Wanowrie case.
Top city police officers as well as the investigators coordinating with the Army to further their investigation preferred not to name the arrested major for now. “It won’t be appropriate to divulge any further information at this juncture as our investigation is on. We managed to track him with the help of officials of the Military Intelligence,” Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta said.
A senior crime branch officer said, “We were supposed to reveal the name of the arrested officer on Sunday but after our communication with the Army officials, the same has been withheld.”
The officer said, “On Sunday, we found involvement of two more Army officers in the case and further details can be revealed after verifying their role as they are closely linked to the arrested officer.”
Another senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said, “We are now trying to establish the arrested Army officer’s link with other suspects and how he got in contact with them. We can’t rule out the possibility of his contact with senior Army officers involved in the printing of the question paper and other activities pertaining to the examination.”
Of the nine arrests so far, six have been made in the Wanowrie case and the remaining three in the Vishrantwadi case.
The city police on Saturday formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the two cases related to the army recruitment exam paper leak.