Multiple sources leaked 2021 SI exam paper: Rajasthan Police’s ADG VK Singh to HT

On Monday, the Rajasthan Police’s Special Operation Group (SOG) detained former Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) member Babu Lal Katara, a day after the arrest of another former member of the commission, Ramu Ram Raika, for allegedly receiving the handwritten question paper of the 2021 sub-inspector exam a week prior to the test for his two children who secured the top ranks in the examination.

In an interview with HT’s Senjuti Sengupta, SOG additional director general VK Singh talked about the operation to get hold of the two officials, the multiple rackets that operated, and the SOG’s upcoming targets to prevent any paper-leak in future. Edited excerpts:

Q. How did the SOG find the involvement of the RPSC officials in the SI paper leak case?

A. The children of Ramu Ram Raika — Shobha and Devesh — were under our radar from the beginning. When the SOG’s special helpline number began, we received complaints that these two did not seem to be capable candidates and must have taken unfair means to clear the paper. The complaints also mentioned an alleged link of Raika in the case.

During investigation, we found that Shobha and Devesh did not have any direct link to any member of the paper leak gang, which was in touch with the rest of the accused.

However, we kept an eye on them both outside and inside the police academy as their behaviour was very unusual. Their performances during the training period were also very poor. Therefore, our teams had a suspicion that they might have got the paper from someone in the RPSC itself as it was an easily available source for them.

After gathering all necessary intelligence inputs, we arrested Shobha and Devesh on Saturday and during interrogation, they confessed that their father had provided them with the paper.

Q. Besides Raika’s children, was there anyone else among the arrested who did not have any direct link to the paper-leak gang?

A. So far, no such people have been found. However, many other people and trainees are under our radar. We cannot predict anything but the investigation in the SI-2021 paper leak case will go pretty long, and several other questions and doubts are yet to be answered.

Q. Does SOG suspect the involvement of any more RPSC officials?

A. All the officials who were under our radar are in our custody at present. But we will probe if the roles of any other official comes to the fore.

Q. How did Raika get hold of the SI-2021 question paper a week before?

A. Prima facie, Katara shared the question paper with Raika six to seven days prior to the exam in a handwritten form. But there was no money exchanged between the two. As of now, we have no clear idea about how Katara got hold of the paper.

We have sought a few old records and data from the RPSC regarding people responsible for setting the SI recruitment question paper in 2021, and Katara and Raika’s assignments during the exam. It will take some time to gather these inputs, following which we will be in a position to comment on it in detail.

Q. Earlier, it was found that the SI-2021 paper was leaked by Jagadish Bishnoi from a Jaipur-based school and now it has come to the fore that the paper was leaked from a separate RPSC insider source as well. Were the two rackets interlinked or were they operating separately?

A. Not only two, but the entire SI-2021 paper was leaked from multiple sources. Apart from these two sources, an Uttar Pradesh-based person in Udaipur leaked the paper through Bluetooth. A similar case was also registered in Pali.

In Bikaner, a coaching centre owner, Raja Mohan, stole the paper from a school on the day of the exam while working as a staff member and later sold it to two separate gangs at ₹1,000,000 each. Raja was part of the Porav Kaler gang, who used to run a separate paper-solver racket in the state. Besides, we have not ruled out the possibility of any other gang leaking the SI-2021 paper.

Q. When and how did Raika and Katara get in touch? Did they work together to leak any other paper?

A. Raika was a lecturer at several colleges and later served as a joint director in the medical education department. He was appointed in RPSC in 2018 while Katara joined the commission in 2020. They met for the first time in the commission. However, it is difficult to say at this point whether they were involved in any other paper leak.

People in RPSC get different charges and roles during their tenure. We are in touch with RPSC for some records which will give us a better idea.

Q. It is always said that gangs and RPSC members are not the big fish in paper leak cases. Has SOG found any such bigger name in the investigation so far?

A. I took over this SIT on December 16. I don’t believe that there is involvement of no bigger fish than these gang members – most of whom are now in our custody. However, I cannot ascertain what will come our way.

Q. The SIT is currently probing over 15 paper leak cases. In your opinion, what are the shortcomings that led to these many paper leak cases?

A. Whatever shortcomings came to our notice, we have informed the commission. We are regularly in touch with the RPSC and district officials to improve the system. A lot of changes took place in the last few days.

As part of the investigation team, our target is to stop any gang operating in Rajasthan from leaking any question papers of any examinations. Since we now have sufficient idea about the gangs in Rajasthan, we plan to focus on the gangs in our neighbouring states such as Haryana and Delhi who might start operating in our state in the future.

Q. Will the recruitment done via SI-2021 be cancelled?

A. This is a matter completely reserved for the government. As an investigator, I cannot propose such a thing. I will provide the government with the facts of our investigation when required.

Q. Both Raika and Katara had good political influence. How challenging was the SOG’s job to get them in such circumstances?

A. It’s a misconception that we were under any kind of political influence. We have complete freedom to work. Our only challenge is to gather evidence as per legal requirements.

Q. The SOG has been seeking more workforce in the SIT for quite some time. Any update on that?

A. A lot of complaints are pouring in daily on our helpline numbers. More manpower will help us do the job better and act on those complaints sooner. We are committed to stopping the operations of these paper leak gangs, no matter what.