CHARGES FRAMED AGAINST ALL 27 ACCUSED

A local court on Monday framed charges against all 27 accused, including mastermind Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, also known as Masterji and Guruji, in a question paper leak scam for the recruitment to various posts in the Punjab local bodies department in 2015.

The accused against whom charges have been framed include Shiv Bahadur Singh and Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, who were allegedly behind the paper leak along with their associate Sailesh Kumar. Those who benefited from the paper leak were also arrested in the case.

In November 2015, the Punjab vigilance bureau had busted a recruitment scam for the posts of sub-divisional officers (SDOs) and junior engineers for filling several posts in local civic bodies, Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation, Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority and the irrigation department.

It was found that the examination paper for SDOs was leaked. The exam was held for 682 posts, including assistant corporation engineer, assistant MC engineer and sub-divisional engineer.

During investigations, it was found that some of the candidates appearing in these exams were shown all question papers in Lucknow and Najafgarh in Delhi.

The paper leak was reported and after the preliminary investigations, the vigilance bureau had registered the case on April 6, 2016. During investigation, similar cases of paper leak for the examination of Punjab Civil Supplies Corporation and Punjab Urban Development Authority also came to the fore. It was found that ‘Guruji’ managed to leak papers to the selective candidates in Lucknow in lieu of money.