Bhubaneswar: Balasore Police have arrested eight more people from different places 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 25 people, including the mastermind of the alleged question paper leak, sources said. The fresh arrests were reported to have been made from different districts of Odisha.
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 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. He was communicating with the helper for the past 2 months with the hope to lay his hands on some question papers. He was not targeting OSCC specifically, she had said
