TSPSC paper leak: Prime accused Pulidindi Praveen, 8 others arrested

Hyderabad: In the latest update, the Nampally court has ordered a 14-day remand of the accused involved in the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) paper leak case. Out of the nine arrested individuals, eight have been sent to Charlapally jail, while one accused, Renuka, has been transferred to Chanchalguda women’s jail.

Hyderabad City Police Commissioner C V Anand transferred the case to SIT, CCS for further investigation under the direct supervision of Additional CPP Crime & SIT Hyderabad city with immediate effect.

The accused face charges of stealing and leaking TSPSC’s question papers for monetary benefits. The incident has raised serious concerns about the integrity of TSPSC’s examinations and the need for stricter measures to prevent malpractice. The authorities must ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future and that those found guilty are punished accordingly.

According to Kiran Khare, deputy commissioner of police (southwest Hyderabad), a complaint was received from the assistant secretary (administration), TSPSC, on 11 March at the Begum Bazar police station. The arrested accused were charged with stealing and leaking TSPSC’s question papers for monetary benefits.

Pulidindi Praveen Kumar, 32, who has been working as an assistant section officer in the TSPSC since 2017, is the main accused. Atla Rajasekhar Reddy, 35, who has been working as a network expert since November 2017 on an outsourcing basis as part of the team provided by Telangana State Technology Services, was also involved.

A government Hindi teacher, Renuka, and her husband, Lavdyavath Dakhya, from Mahaboobnagar, allegedly offered Rs. 10 lakhs to Praveen for leaking the question papers. Praveen then roped in Rajasekhar and stole the data from TSPSC, transferred it to a pen drive, took prints of question papers for the post of assistant engineer (civil), and shared the general studies paper on 2 March.

Renuka’s brother, Rajeshwar Nayak, had started scouting for prospective buyers of question papers. He contacted Medchal police constable Kethavath Srinivas, who directed him to Nilesh Nayak and Gopal Nayak, who was preparing for the AE (civil) exam. The accused took Rs. 13.5 lakhs from them with an assurance of providing the question paper.

The police found that Dhakya and Rajeshwar gave the question paper to Nilesh and Gopal, confined them to their homes, and escorted them to the examination centre on 5 March. Around 25,000 aspirants took this exam on the day.

The police also arrested Nilesh’s brother Rajender Nayak who allegedly arranged the money for his brother to buy the leaked question papers. The police seized 4 pen drives, one Dell Laptop, one Dell Desktop PC and three Mobile Phones from the prime accused, two laptops, and one Apple Ipad from A2, and four mobile phones from the other accused.

“All the nine accused have been booked under sections 409, 420, 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66 (b) (c) and 70 of the IT Act and section 8 of the Prevention of Examinations Malpractices Act,” said Kiran Khare, deputy commissioner of police (southwest Hyderabad).