Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 19 Sep: The capital police have arrested five persons who were allegedly involved in the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission’s (APPSC) assistant engineer (civil) examination question paper leakage case.
The arrested persons have been identified as APPSC Deputy Secretary-cum-Deputy Controller of Examination Taket Jerang (53); AE exam candidate Thomas Gaduk (26); Jeju Institute teacher Akhilesh Yadav; Head Assistant and father of Thomas Gaduk, Tanyang Gaduk (57); and GPS Tarak Pangin junior teacher Tama Saroh (53).
They have been arrested and booked under Section 120-B/420/406/407/409, IPC.
In a press conference held here, Itanagar Capital Region SP Jimmy Chiram disclosed that Jerang had traded the question papers of the AE civil prelims and mains examinations for monetary benefit.
Chiram informed that, on 29 August, a written information was received from one Gyamar Padang, a candidate of the APPSC AE examination, claiming that he suspected that the paper had been leaked.
“A preliminary inquiry was conducted, based on the complaint, and the report was submitted on 10 September to the SP office. Later, the case was registered at the Itanagar police station, which appointed Inspector Ongsa Rongrang as the investigating officer,” the SP said.
He informed that candidate Gaduk and coaching institute teacher Yadav were arrested on 11 September, while Tanyang Gaduk and middleman Tama Saroh were arrested on 16 September.
“After detailed interrogation and disclosure, Taket Jerang was arrested on the same day,” the SP said.
He added that, as per initial investigation, Tanyang Gaduk had approached middleman Saroh to find a link to get the question paper of the examination for his son in 2021.
“Accordingly, Saroh approached Jerang for the task and allured him with promises of monetary favour, and AE exam question papers were procured illegally and provided to Thomas before the examination,” the SP said.
He said also that “Jerang had opened the sealed packet and copied paper and delivered to Thomas via Saroh.”
“Thomas had consulted Akhilesh, who further revealed the questions to the complainant,” the SP said.
It is claimed that Tanyang Gaduk paid Tama Saroh approximately Rs 43 lakhs in cash, out of which Rs 15 lakhs in cash was paid to Jerang by Saroh. The cash deal was reportedly done in 2021.
It is also alleged that the money received by Saroh and Jerang was converted into properties. One Hyundai i20 car and a Mahindra Scorpio were used in the offence.
The capital police have constituted a special investigation team (SIT) comprising Additional SP Thutan Jamba, SDPO Kamdam Sikom, Inspector Ongsa Rongrang, SI AK Jha and Constable Pranjal Medhi, to investigate the case.
On being asked whether there was a possibility that question papers had been leaked in the previous competitive exams of the APPSC also by the same team, Chiram said that no lead has been found so far in this regard.
