2 More Arrested In OSSC Question Paper Leak Case In Odisha

Balasore: Two more persons were arrested by the Balasore Police in connection with the JE (Civil) Main written examination conducted by the Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC).

With this, Police have so far arrested a total of 27 people, including the mastermind of the alleged question paper leak, sources said.

The two persons arrested on Monday were stated to be middlemen in the racket. They were identified as are Basudev Pradhan from Puri and Partha Sengupta from West Bengal. A thorough investigation into the inter-state racket is still in progress and more arrests are likely to be made.

Police sources said Partha happened to be a labour contractor and supplied workers to a printing press. After the question papers were printed in the press, he supplied them to another person working in the same place. The question papers were subsequently handed over to others.

It may be noted here that the OSSC has already issued show-cause notices to about 55 candidates, who were allegedly involved in the question paper leak case.

The Balasore Police had initially arrested nine persons belonging to Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar from Digha area of West Bengal and subsequently eight others were taken into custody on July 27 in connection with the racket.

After Balasore SP confirmed that question papers had been leaked, the OSSC had on July 23 cancelled the Main written examination for JE (Civil) conducted on July 16, 2023.

The Commission has also rescheduled the examination to September 3, this year.

Angry over the incident, a large number of aspirants had staged a demonstration in front of the OSSC office demanding stern action against the staff and officials allegedly involved in the scam.

It is alleged that the accused leaked the question paper in exchange for huge sums of money from 88 aspirants.

Balasore SP Sagarika Nath had earlier said that the question papers were leaked from a printing press located outside the state. The press helper supplied the question paper to the mastermind, who is a Bihar government employee and working as divisional accountant in Accountant General’s office there. The press helper’s brother was an acquittance of the mastermind and they belonged to the same village