Telangana Raj Bhavan seeks report on TSPSC paper leak issue

Taking serious note of the alleged leak of question papers of recruitment tests by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC), Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan's office has sought a detailed report from the constitutional body over the issue by Thursday night.

The case of question paper leak regarding the Assistant Engineer (Civil) exam conducted by the Commission was on Tuesday transferred to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Hyderabad Police for further investigation.

The Raj Bhavan, under the instructions of the Governor, has written a letter to TSPSC secretary.

In the letter, it favoured a thorough inquiry into the issue and sought a report within 48 hours on the alleged leak and the corrective measures proposed to be taken to avoid recurrence of such incidents in order to protect the future of genuine candidates apart from initiating stringent action against the culprits, a Raj Bhavan press communique said on Tuesday night.

TSPSC chairman Janardhan Reddy said a decision on whether or not to conduct AE examination would be taken on Wednesday after considering relevant issues, including legal measures.

Nine people, including an Assistant Section Officer in TSPSC, two candidates and a police constable, were arrested on Monday over their alleged involvement in the data breach, for stealing and leaking of TSPSC's Assistant Engineer (Civil) examination question paper. The exam was held on March 5.

The TSPSC Chairman said the Assistant Section Officer has been suspended from service.

Based on a complaint lodged by the TSPSC at Begum Bazaar police station, a case was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, IT Act, and Telangana Public Examination (Prevention of Malpractices and Unfair Means) Act.

The case was transferred to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the Central Crime Station (CCS) for further investigation under the direct supervision of Additional Commissioner of Police (Crimes and SIT) with immediate effect, Hyderabad Police Commissioner C V Anand said.

Slamming the BRS government over the issue, Telangana BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge into the issue.

State Congress president and Lok Sabha member A Revanth Reddy also sought inquiry by a sitting judge into the recruitment conducted by the state government after the formation of Telangana.

Protesting over the question paper leak and demanding suspension of TSPSC chairman, members of BJP's youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and other students' organisations held protests in front of the TSPSC office and at Osmania University and other places in the city on Tuesday.

The protesters raised slogans by climbing onto the main gate of the TSPSC and allegedly damaged the name board of the official body. Police took 25 protesters into preventive custody.

Police earlier said they found that the TSPSC Assistant Section Officer had colluded with a network administrator, to whom work was being outsourced, to leak the TSPSC's Assistant Engineer (AE) question paper after stealing the data from the computer of the confidential section of the office.

The TSPSC on March 11 postponed the written examination scheduled to be held on March 12 for the post of Town Planning Building Overseer on account of suspected hacking and lodged a complaint at Begum Bazaar police station.

On the suspected leak of other question papers, a senior police official said that investigations were still on and the devices seized from the accused were handed over to the forensics team and that forensic analysis can ascertain if they had leaked other papers.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)