Gujarat: Bin Sachivalaya paper leak mastermind held in Bhavnagar, say police

A total of six persons had already been arrested by Gandhinagar police on December 25 last year in connection with the case.

The Bin Sachivalaya exam was held by Gujarat State Subordinate Staff Selection Board (GSSSB) on November 17. Mass protests by applicants broke out in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar after CCTV footage emerged which showed a few applicants allegedly using cellphones during the exam.

It was also alleged that the question paper was leaked on WhatsApp, a few days ahead of the exam. Following this, the state government announced cancellation of the exam which was attended by over 6 lakh applicants.

“The accused was hiding at his brother-in-law’s place in a society in Palitana town since December. We received a tip and held him today from the residence. A team of Gandhinagar police arrived today evening and took Gadhvi to the state capital for further questioning,” said NM Chaudhary, police inspector and in-charge, Palitana Town police station.

According to Gandhinagar police, as many as six accused were arrested in the case till December last year and the mastermind was been identified as Pravindan Gadhvi, as per findings by a Special Investigation team formed to probe the scam.

Police said that the question paper leak occurred at MS Public School in Dani Limda of Ahmedabad which was one among 3,173 centres for Bin Sachivalaya exam on November 17.

The six accused arrested earlier are identified as Vijendrasinh Vaghela, Principal of MS Public School in Dani Limda of Ahmedabad, Fakruddin Ghadiyari, teacher at MS Public School who was appointed as supervisor during exam, Mahmad Farooq Abdul Wahab Qureshi, MS Public School trustee and exam centre organiser, Deepak Joshi, a resident of Anand from whose phone police traced the leakage of question paper, Ram Gadhvi, brother-in-law of mastermind Pravindan Gadhvi and Lakhveer Singh Siddhu, who allegedly sold the leaked question paper, as per the police.

Police said that after the report of SIT, they traced the leakage of question paper to one Deepak Joshi in Anand, who then revealed about his accomplices and the role of mastermind Gadhvi.

Based on call detail records, police deduced that all seven accused were allegedly in touch with each other on November 16 and 17. On November 16, a day before the exam, Gadhvi had allegedly arrived in MS Public School and contacted school principal Vaghela and school trustee Mahmad. He then sat in an office adjacent to the trustee office inside the school premises. Fakruddin brought the stack of sealed question papers from the trustee office and used a paper cutter to break the seal and then took out one set. Gadhvi then clicked pictures of the question paper on his cell phone and forwarded the pictures to Lakhveer Singh Siddhu and his brother-in-law Ram Gadhvi.

All the accused have been booked under sections 406, 409, 420 and 120 B for breach of trust, criminal breach of trust by public servant, fraud and criminal conspiracy along with sections of the IT act