Chittoor court cancels bail granted to Narayana in SSC paper leak case

CHITTOOR : The Additional District Sessions Court in Chittoor on Monday cancelled the bail granted to TDP leader and former minister P Narayana in the SSC paper leak case and directed him to surrender before the court by November 30.

The court’s decision came following a petition filed by Chittoor police seeking cancellation of bail granted to the founder of Narayana Group of Educational Institutions. Welcoming the judgement, Chittoor district Superintendent of Police Y Rishanth Reddy said a day after the TDP leader was granted bail in the malpractice case, police filed a revised petition in the district sessions court on May 12, seeking cancellation of his bail. Additional Advocate General (AAG) P Sudhakar Reddy filed the revision petition in the court. After hearing the revision petition, Chittoor court served notices on Narayana.

Arguing that the bail granted to Narayana was illegal and he deserved special punishment as everybody is equal before the law, the AAG told the court that leaking question papers was not a trivial matter as the students’ future was at stake.

Pointing out that the former minister need not be the chairman of Narayana Group to resort to leaking the question paper, Sudhakar Reddy argued that the deposition given by the other accused in the case clearly indicated that Narayana had a role to play in the issue.

The court, which reserved its judgement, delivered the verdict on Monday cancelling Narayana’s bail. It may be recalled that Chittoor I Town police arrested Narayana from his Hyderabad residence on May 10 for his alleged involvement in the SSC paper leak case.

The police had busted a gang of corporate schools allegedly indulging in malpractice during the SSC exams in a bid to help students from their institutions to pass the board examinations.  The police had arrested seven persons for their alleged role in leaking Class X first language paper.

The accused include Sri Krishna Reddy, Chaitanya School principal P Suresh, NRI Academy English teacher K Sudhakar, Chaitanya School principal Arif, Narayana School vice-principal Giridhar Reddy, Chaitanya School Dean K Mohan - all from Tirupati - and two government school teachers from GD Nellore mandal, Pavan Kumar Reddy and B Somu.

The arrested were booked under Section 5 (read with 8 and 10) of the Andhra Pradesh Public Examination (Prevention of Malpractice) Act and IPC Section 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant).
The investigation had revealed that a question paper of the first language was leaked from an examination centre at the Zilla Parishad High School in Nellapalli of GD Nellore mandal. It was reportedly forwarded to private school teachers through WhatsApp.