Chandigarh Cong leader, accused’s roommate held
SUNIL CHOPRA, FORMER TREASURE OF CHANDIGARH CONGRESS, AND AYUSHI, ROOMMATE OF ACCUSED SUNITA, REMANDED IN POLICE CUSTODY
CHANDIGARH: Ten days after the Punjab and Haryana high court came down heavily on the special investigation team (SIT) probing the alleged paper leak in the Haryana Civil Services (HCS) judicial examination, the UT police arrested two more accused in the case.
Those arrested are Congress leader Sunil Chopra, former treasure of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee, and Ayushi, a roommate of one of the accused.
They were produced before in a local court on Tuesday. While Ayushi was sent to police remand for four days, Kumar was remanded in two-day custody.
The examination for 109 HCS (judicial) posts was conducted on July 16, 2017. Following a petition in the high court in August 2017, a high court probe panel had found that the paper got leaked. Balwinder Kumar Sharma, then registrar (recruitment), is one of the accused in the case, besides two woman candidates Sunita and Sushila, who were arrested earlier. The police have already filed a chargesheet in the case.
A team of nearly 50 cops of Chandigarh police were on the lookout for Ayushi, 20, a resident of Hisar and Sunita’s roommate, in parts of Haryana, including Rohtak, Hisar and Jhajjar over the past three days.
DSP (central) Krishan Kumar said the cops had been searching for Ayushi for over a month. She was arrested from a farm house in Jhajjar on Monday night after which she was brought to Chandigarh. A conspirator, Ayushi along with her relatives helped arrange candidates who would purchase the leaked paper from Sunita.
The police sought her remand claiming that they needed to take her to trace her relatives, including her father.
Sunil Chopra alias Titu was arrested on the basis of a disclosure statement by Ayushi. His name had also cropped up during Sunita’s interrogation.
Chopra is the president of the Sector 19 temple committee where the candidates/beneficiaries of the paper leak resided, argued the district attorney before the duty magistrate.
It was also mentioned that Sharma came there frequently to meet Sunita.
Stating that the accused was the chairman of the temple management, police said Sunita used to reside in one of the 18 rooms there.
Police also claimed that Chopra used to arrange candidates to buy the leaked paper. They took amount ranging from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh per candidate.
Meanwhile, Sharma’s counsel on Tuesday moved an application before the trial court seeking directions to be given to SIT to supply copies of all the DDRs till the filing of the challan in this case along with list of witnesses. The court issued notice to prosecution and the matter will be heard on May 29.