Representative image
Mumbai: The Thane Police have detained three defence personnel in the Army recruitment exam paper leak, police said on Wednesday.
The three accused — Ravinder Kumar, Dharamveer Singh and Nigam Kumar Pandey — allegedly used to sell the papers to the prime accused in the case, Santosh Shinde.
All three are in the custody of the Army in Nagpur and Thane Police will be taking necessary court orders as the Army has agreed to give their custody.
The police have so far arrested 21 people in connection with the leak of the Army recruitment exam paper which came to light on February 26.
Santosh Shinde, owner of Raje Chhatrapati Academy at Phaltan in Satara district of western Maharashtra who has been arrested, was believed to be the kingpin of the racket, Singh said.
To a question whether any senior Army official was involved, the Commissioner said, “Prima facie we do not not see the involvement of Army officials. The crime is confined to the lower level staff from the Army.”
After the Thane police busted the racket on February 26, the Army cancelled the examinations at a number of centres, including Kamptee, Nagpur, Ahmednagar, Ahmedabad, Goa and Kirkee, which come under the Pune zone.
Thane police had last week received information from an institute, which conducts coaching classes for Army job aspirants that some city students were to be given the question papers in advance for a price.
Police then laid a trap and caught the students and the middlemen from lodges and other places with the copies of question papers. The Army has instituted a high-level Court of Inquiry to probe the matter.
(With PTI inputs)