ED questions TSPSC chief & secretary in paper leak case

HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday questioned Telangana State Public Service Commission chairman B Janardhan Reddy and its secretary Anita Ramachandran in connection with the exam paper leak case.
ED recorded the statements of the top officials of TSPSC after summoning them under section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. This section empowers ED investigating officials to call for questioning and record the statements of those it perceives may have a role.
ED asked them how kingpin P Praveen Kumar, who was assistant section officer in TSPSC, and key accused Atla Rajashekar Reddy, who was network administrator, could get hold of the login credentials of the systems where the question paper was stored.
The central investigating agency has already recorded the statements of Praveen and Rajashekar about their involvement in the case. ED had also grilled TSPSC confidential section officer Shankara Lakshmi, who was in-charge of password credentials.
ED has also filed a petition in a court seeking permission to record the statements of five accused lodged in jail. The special investigation team, constituted by the state government to probe the paper leaks issue, however, objected to the petition of ED in the court. SIT said ED grilling the accused will hamper its investigation. SIT argued that ED will have to approach a special PMLA court and not the 12th additional chief metropolitan magistrate court.
ED booked the case under the PMLA based on an FIR registered by SIT, which is investigating the case parallelly under IPC sections and the Prevention of Examinations Malpractices Act.
The arrested accused stole the data from the computer systems of the confidential section and took the printout of assistant engineer (civil) exam paper and general studies paper and handed them over to jobs aspirants by collecting Rs 5 lakh each.