Odisha: 8 more persons arrested in connection with OSSC question paper leak

Balasore: Eight more persons were arrested today by Balasore Police from different districts in the State in connection with Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) question paper leak.

With this, the total number of arrested persons reached 25. A detailed probe into the much-debated case is still underway, a senior police official expressed.

The arrested middlemen are Bijay Mallick (25), Santanu Mishra (29), Pradeep Satpathy, Sandeep Kumar Mohanty (27), Niranjan Behera (55), Ajay Kumar Biswal (43), Rajib Lochan Sahu (33) and Sapan Kumar Rout (33), an official source mentioned.

In the question paper leak incident of JE (Civil) Mains Examination conducted by OSSC on 16th of July, 2023, eight more middlemen from Odisha have been arrested, who had contacted candidates to supply question papers before the scheduled date and time of the examination, a press release said.

Worth mentioning, OSSC previously issued show-cause notices on July 29 to about 55 candidates, who were allegedly involved in the JE (Civil) main exam question paper leak case.

Balasore Police had arrested eight persons from Bihar including the mastermind. Earlier, police had also nabbed nine persons from Digha in West Bengal.

The main written examination of JE (Civil) conducted on July 16 was cancelled by the OSSC following a report submitted by Balasore SP Sagarika Nath claiming the bust of interstate job fraud racket.

Nath had also made it clear that the members of the racket provided genuine question papers of the JE (Civil) main examination to some job aspirants by collecting huge sums from them.

Biswaranjan is the kingpin of the job fraud racket. He and his accomplices were mainly operating in the states like Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. They were targeting jobseekers and posing themselves as close acquaintances of officials in organisations conducting examinations, the fraudsters were duping the job aspirants of around Rs 10 to 15 lakh from each.

The fraudsters were initially obtaining two signed cheques and original certificates from each jobseeker and then executing their game plans, divulging their ‘modus of operandi’ the SP had said.