Employee with Accountant General office in Bengaluru held for role in TSPSC paper leak

HYDERABAD: An employee with the Accountant General (AG)'s office in Bengaluru and three others were arrested on Tuesday for their role in the TSPSC question paper leak, taking the arrest count to 31.
Besides the assistant audit officer (AG office), Ravi Teja, others in the net include a freelance education consultant, Kranti, site engineer Sasidhar and a teacher, Rahul.
Special investigation team (SIT) sources said, Teja secured the divisional accounts officer (DAO) question paper from Sai Laukik, a car rental businessman from Khammam for Rs 15 lakh. Laukik's wife, Sushmita, had procured it from the kingpin, Praveen Kumar, and she's currently in custody.
Sushmita, who quit her MNC job to prepare for civil services exam, first met Praveen when she visited the TSPSC office with an enquiry. Praveen offered to sell the DAO question paper for Rs 10 lakh and a deal was struck. Sushmita's husband, Laukik, paid Rs 6 lakh and got the question paper. "However, Laukik decided to make some money and contacted an aide, Ravi Teja, and sold him the DAO paper for Rs 15 lakh," said a police official.
Kranti, a consultant from Ibrahimpatnam, obtained the assistant executive engineer (AEE) exam question paper from another accused Muralidhar, through a mediator, Sasidhar.
Muralidhar was recently arrested and on Tuesday, SIT nabbed the other two, Kranti and Sasidhar. The fourth accused, Rahul, a teacher who worked with another accused Renuka, was arrested for obtaining DAO question paper before appearing for the exam. “Rahul did not pay kickbacks to Renuka, who gave the paper to a former colleague out of good will,” police said. More arrests are in the offing, said SIT sources.
While Kranti, Sasidhar and Teja were produced in court and sent in judicial remand, Rahul will be taken to court on Wednesday. The only accused in the case who is on the run is Prashant, brotherin-law of TSPSC network administrator, A Rajasekhar Reddy. Prashant is currently in New Zealand.