Telangana HC seeks report from SIT in TSPSC paper leak case

Hyderabad, April 28 (IANS) The Telangana High Court on Friday refused to pass any orders on a petition seeking probe by the CBI into the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) exam paper leak case.

The court directed the SIT to submit a report on June 5 on the status of the investigation. The court observed that the probe by the SIT is somewhat satisfactory but not progressing swiftly.

It was hearing the petition of NSUI leader Venkat Balmoor, seeking direction for a CBI probe. The court made it clear that at this juncture it can't pass any orders.

The court also wanted to know how long SIT would take to complete the investigation. It remarked that even after a month-and-a-half, the SIT has not completed the investigation.

Advocate General B. S. Prasad informed the court that the SIT is waiting for the report from Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).

SIT counsel conveyed to the court that the SIT has questioned TSPSC chairman, secretary and a member.

The court was told that the investigation was on under the supervision of Hyderabad police commissioner.

The judge wanted to know if SIT questioned all outsourcing employees of TSPSC and how many people benefited from paper leak.

The court directed SIT to submit a report on June 5 on the progress made in the investigation and adjourned the hearing.

Last week, SIT had arrested a man and his son from Mahabubnagar, taking the number of persons arrested so far to 19.

The TSPSC scam came to light on March 12 which led to the arrest of 15 accused besides the cancellation of the Group 1 preliminary examination, Assistant Engineers, AEE, and DAO exams.

Praveen Kumar, who worked as an assistant section officer at TSPSC and Rajashekar Reddy, a network admin at ATSPSC, had allegedly stolen question papers of some exams from a computer in a confidential section of the Commission and sold it to other accused.

The SIT had earlier informed the Telangana High Court that it had arrested 17 accused in the case since March 13. It also informed the court that it was making efforts to arrest another accused from New Zealand.

The exam paper leak case created a sensation in Telangana as opposition parties Congress and BJP blamed the BRS government for the leak that affected lakhs of unemployed in the state.

The SIT has also examined TSPS chairman Janardhan Reddy, secretary Anita Ramchandran and member B. Linga Reddy.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing money laundering charges in the case. Last week, it questioned Praveen Kumar and Rajashekar Reddy.

The ED officials are believed to have questioned the two accused based on the information obtained from Shankara Lakshmi, incharge of the confidential section room at TSPSC. She had appeared before the ED on April 11 and was grilled for over 10 hours.

Praveen and Rajasekhar are said to have stolen question papers of various exams conducted by the TSPSC for recruitment in government departments from computer in the confidential section.

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