ED to interrogate main accused in TSPSC paper leak case
Hyderabad (IANS) | The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will interrogate the main accused in the Telangana State Public Service (TSPSC) exam paper leak case. The central agency filed a petition in the Nampally court seeking permission to interrogate Praveen Kumar and Rajasekhara Reddy. Reddy is a suspended TSPSC employee and is currently in judicial custody. The ED moved the court for recording the statement of the accused under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency told the court that it has the authority to investigate under sections 48 and 49.
The ED has filed the Enforcement Case Information Report based on media reports, information available in public domain and initial inputs from intelligence. The court was told that a four-member team of ED officials would record the statements of the accused.
The ED also sought the court’s direction to the Chanchalguda jail superintendent to allow laptops, printers and other electronic gadgets in the prison for recording statements.
The agency has also mentioned in its plea that it had written to the Central Crime Station (CCS) on March 23 seeking documents and details of the case. It sought a direction to hand over the details of the case to the police.
The ED has also issued notices to two officers of TSPSC including Confidential Section Officer Shankara Lakshmi. He has been asked to appear for questioning on April 12 and 13. The accused had stolen the question papers from Lakshmi’s computer.
Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Hyderabad Police probing the paper leak on Tuesday submitted its probe report in a sealed cover to the Telangana High Court. While hearing the petition of NSUI leader Balamuri Venkat, the court had directed the SIT to submit its report.
The Advocate General told the court that out of 18 accused, 17 have been arrested by the SIT while efforts are on to arrest one more accused who is in New Zealand.
The counsel for the petitioner argued that he had no faith in the SIT. He also told the court that the SIT investigation is limited to some lower rank employees of TSPSC. Stating that the ED is talking about transactions from abroad, he said that facts can come out only after a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The court asked the Advocate General whether the candidates were allowed to appear in the examination as per the rules and sought details such as the name of the agency to which the task of conducting the examination was outsourced.
The paper leak issue rocked the TSPSC last month. In the confidential section of TSPSC, two employees stole question papers from the computer system and shared them with others. TSPSC has canceled four examinations, including the preliminary examination conducted for recruitment to Group-1 posts in government departments.
The SIT has also recorded the statements of the Chairman, Secretary and a member of TSPSC and has also questioned several candidates who have scored good marks in the Group-I examination.
–IANS
