Bihar staff selection panel chairman held in paper leak case

THE BSSC CHAIRMAN ALLEGEDLY LEAKED THE INTER LEVEL CLERICAL EXAM TO HELP FIVE OF HIS RELATIVES, WHO WERE TO TAKE THE TEST

PATNA: Senior IAS officer and chairman of Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) Sudhir Kumar was arrested along with five others on Friday from Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh locality in connection with the leak of question papers of recruitment examinations held earlier this month.

Brother of the 1987-batch officer Prof Avadhesh Kumar, sister-in-law Manju Devi, nephew Ashish Kumar, one Sajjad Ahmad and BSSC IT manager Niti Ranjan Pratap were also arrested for their alleged role in facilitating the question paper leak, police said.

The six were produced in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) in Patna after interrogation.

Meanwhile, members of the Bihar IAS officers’ association submitted a memorandum to chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and met chief minister Nitish Kumar seeking the IAS officer’s release and transfer of the BSSC question leak probe to the Centra Bureau of Investigation.

Earlier, the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case had picked up 30 persons, including commission secretary Parmeshwar Ram and a computer operator.

Patna SSP Manu Maharaj said there was concrete evidence against Kumar, as five of his kin, including two nephews, were also taking the inter-level examination, which was cancelled after question leak.