Narayana arrested in exam paper leak case

Cops say they have evidence against the former AP minister

Head of the Narayana Group of Educational Institutions Dr Ponguru Narayana, a former Telugu Desam (TD) minister, was arrested by the Chittoor district police at his residence in Hyderabad’s Kondapur on Tuesday.

Narayana was detained in connection with the SSC board examination malpractice case registered at Chittoor I town police station on April 27. The police have already arrested seven persons including N. Giridhar Reddy, VicePrincipal of Narayana School in Tirupati, in connection with this case.Disclosing the case details to reporters at the district police office in Chittoor on Tuesday evening, superintendent of police Y. Rishanth Reddy said following a complaint lodged by the Chittoor district education officer (DEO) on the circulation of Class 10 Telugu question paper in WhatsApp groups, the Chittoor I Town police launched an investigation and arrested seven persons.

During the course of investigation, it has emerged that corporate institutions (Chaitanya, Narayana, Krishna Reddy Chaitanya and NRI Academy) formed a gang and hatched a plan to get question papers leaked in a bid to get all their students passed without any difficulty. As part of the probe, Giridhar Reddy, K. Sudhakar of NRI Academy, Suresh Babu of Krishna Reddy Chaitanya and government teacher Pawan Kumar were again taken into custody and interrogated on Tuesday.

According to the confession of Sudhakar and Suresh, who worked at Narayana institutions in the past, the SP revealed, “Under the directions of Narayana, the school heads get the question papers leaked with the help of teachers and staff, and then they prepare a key and send them to the students in a bid to help them secure more marks.”

“Based on the details obtained from the accused involved in the case, and following the technical evidence gathered, the former minister was taken into custody. The arrest was made only after his complicity in the case was established, and in accordance with the rules and duly following proper procedures,” Rishanth Reddy said.

Reiterating that the government of AP had ordered a thorough probe into the case as the future of lakhs of SSC students appearing for the board examinations was at stake, the SP said they were also probing into the involvement of other educational institutions and would not tolerate anyone indulging in the malpractices in public examinations.