Notably, more than 48 lakh candidates took part in the police constable recruitment exam in Uttar Pradesh on February 17 and 18.

Uttar Pradesh Paper Leak Case: The Uttar Pradesh Police Wednesday scored a major breakthrough in the Uttar Pradesh police constable recruitment examination paper leak case as another key accused was arrested by a Special Task Force (STF) of the UP Police from a resort in Haryana’s Jind district.

As per an official statement, Mahendra Sharma, an associate of the prime accused, Vikram Pahal– a Delhi police constable– was arrested by the UP Police STF from Jind district of Haryana on Wednesday evening and sent to jail in the case registered against him at the Kankarkheda police station in Meerut.

Rs 7 lakh ‘fee’

Following his arrest Sharma told the police that last month, Vikram Pahal had called over 1,000 aspirants to a resort at Manesar, Gurugram where demanded Rs 7 lakh as ‘fee’ from each candidate for procuring the question paper and the answer key.

Citing sources, a report by NDTV said that each aspirant was asked to pay Rs 7 lakh as “fees” for the leaked papers after the exam, adding that the accused would retain original marksheets from previous exams as “insurance”.

“On February 15, Vikram Pahal took the arrested Mahendra Sharma to a resort in Gurugram Manesar. There were already 400 examinees present in this resort and a young man named Gaurav Chaudhary had brought other examinees to the resort in 10/12 buses,” the UP police said in a statement.

Candidates summoned to Haryana resort

Sharma told the police that Pahal had promised to pay him Rs 2 lakh in exchange for his “services”.

“Vikram Pahal had called a meeting with about 1,000 candidates gathered at the resort. On February 16, at 11:00 am, Pahal along with his colleagues reached the resort with the question paper and answer key of the second shift examinations held on February 18,” Mahendra Sharma revealed during interrogation, according to the police.

“Vikram Pahal, along with a person named Abhishek Shukla and Ravi, planned to put out the UP Police recruitment paper in Delhi even before the examination. They tried to gather as many candidates as possible to study the paper at a resort in Gurugram,” Sharma told the cops.

UP paper leak case

Notably, more than 48 lakh candidates took part in the police constable recruitment exam in Uttar Pradesh on February 17 and 18.

On February 24, the Uttar Pradesh Police Police Recruitment and Promotion Board cancelled the written examination for direct recruitment-2023 to the posts of reserved civilian police in Uttar Pradesh Police.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment Board Chairperson, Renuka Mishra was sacked by the UP government and Rajeev Krishna has been given additional charge as Recruitment Board Chairperson.

(With inputs from agencies)