A senior IAS officer and Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) chairman Sudhir Kumar was on Friday arrested along with his brother and two more relatives in connection with the BSSC examination question paper leak case. The Bihar branch of the IAS Officers’ Association has expressed anger and anguish over the development.
The IAS association met the Chief Secretary, sought the release of arrested chairman and also demanded a CBI enquiry.
Kumar, who is a 1987 batch IAS officer was apprehended from Hazaribagh along with four other family members. After the question paper of the exams being conducted by BSSC for post of clerks in Bihar government were leaked earlier this month and was available on social media even before the exam began, the multi-crore job scam was unearthed following which several arrests have taken place in this case including the secretary of BSSC, Parmeshwar Ram.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police was interrogating Kumar and he would be brought to the Bihar capital later on Friday, an official at the state police headquarters said.
Kumar was absconding since February 10, after the leak surfaced. Following this, the exam which was conducted in two parts on February 5 and 8 was cancelled.
The examination is conducted for appointment of clerks in the state government.
The examination is conducted for appointment of assistants in the state government’s secretariat. The first phase of examination was held on January 29 this year, while the examination in the second phase was conducted on February 5. Though question papers were leaked on January 29 also, the leak became widespread on February 5 after question papers along with answers became viral on WhatsApp, as soon as the examination began at 11 am on February 5.
According to police officials associated with the SIT, Kumar’s role in the leak was under probe and he was arrested following concrete evidence of his involvement.
Following the arrest, an emergency meeting of Bihar IAS officials was held here, which was attended by dozens of bureaucrats.
The SIT has also arrested the owner of a printing press in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where the BSSC question papers were printed.
During the interrogation of the owner, it was established that the papers were leaked from there ahead of the examinations, another police official said.
