Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay named prime accused in Class 10 paper ‘leak’ case

Telangana’s BJP president Bandi Sanjay has been named as the prime accused in the Class 10 ‘paper leak’ case. Amid protests, he was taken into custody on the night of Tuesday, April 4. The police have accused the BJP president of conspiring with a former journalist Burra Prashanth (accused no 2) to “defame the government.” Prashanth, who was formerly associated with the news channel HMTV in Warangal, is presently working at an organisation called NAMO, a BJP frontal organisation, as per the police report. He is also the social media advisor of Bandi Sanjay, police said.

According to the police, the BJP chief plotted to access the Hindi language question paper on April 4, which Prashanth would share in different WhatsApp groups, claiming it was a paper leak and stoking fear among the public. Earlier on April 3, the Telugu language question paper was reported to have been leaked. Sanjay tried to exploit this situation and create paranoia about another paper leak and showing it as a failure of the government to curtail malpractice, the police said.

On April 4, it was reported that the Hindi language question paper had leaked. Subsequently, Bandi Sanjay demanded the resignation of Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy for her failure to prevent the malpractice.

As per the remand report, Sanjay discussed the same with Manoj, a BJP worker from Kamalapur in Karimnagar district, asking him to take photocopies of the question paper and circulate the same in different WhatsApp groups with the false news of a paper leak. 

As per the plan, Srikanth, one of the accused who is absconding and a minor boy trespassed the examination centre in ZPHS boys school in Kamalapur by climbing over a tree.

The minor took photos of the question paper from a student writing the exam and sent it to Moutham Shiva Ganesh (accused no 5). Shiva Ganesh immediately forwarded these photos to a WhatsApp group SSC 2019-2020. One member from the group forwarded the same to Mahesh, who has been listed as accused no 3 in this case. Mahesh forwarded the same to Prashanth. 

At 11.11 am, Prashanth shared the same photos to the journalists' WhatsApp group accompanied by the text: “Breaking News: in Warangal SSC Hindi paper leak at 9. 30 am. Parents are worried as this is the second such incident,” police said in their remand report.

Prashanth forwarded the same to BJP MLA Etela Rajender and Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

Police have denied that it was an incident of a paper leak, as the minor took the photos only at 9.45 am, whereas the exam started at 9.30 am.

“As a part of the conspiracy, A-2 (Prashanth) talked with A-1 (Bandi Sanjay) several times regarding the criminal plan of copying the question papers from the examination hall through cell phones and put it in the social groups to defame the Government(sic),” police said in its report.

Police claimed that the technical evidence by analysing call details and chats of the accused “proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons were involved in a conspiracy regarding the leaking and copying of the question papers on 04-04-2023 (Hindi paper).”

The accused have been arrested under sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 447 (criminal trespass), 505(1 )(b) (public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, along with various sections of Telangana State Public Examination (Prevention of Malpractices) Act, 1997, and Section 66-D of the IT Act, 2008.

Meanwhile, the police took several BJP leaders under preventive custody when they went to meet Bandi Sanjay. BJP national president JP Nadda has been briefed about the incident.

The BRS party has alleged that Bandi Sanjay is involved in all the paper leak incidents.

‘All those involved in the TSPSC question papers leak and Class 10 question papers leak are active members of BJP and are especially close to MP and BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay. Unable to take on CM KCR's government directly, BJP is planning question paper leaks and playing with the lives of lakhs of students and unemployed youth. It is extremely unfortunate that BJP has stooped so low, for narrow political gains,” BRS leader Dasoju Sravan said in a statement.