The CBI, which is probing the question paper leak case of Himachal Pradesh constable recruitment exam, on Tuesday raided five cities of the state including Lucknow. The CBI searched the house of Abhishek Singh, accused of leaking question papers, located in Madhav Green Society near Amity University in Lucknow.
The team from Chandigarh reached UP and collected evidence from the hideouts of the accused in Varanasi, Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Ambedkar Nagar. According to CBI sources, the SIT of Himachal Pradesh Police, which was earlier probing the matter, had arrested Abhishek Singh from Lucknow in May 2022 on charges of leaking the paper.
It was revealed in the investigation that Abhishek was in touch with three candidates and had provided papers to them. Although later he got bail. Apart from this, the SIT also arrested Ghaziabad-based printing press owner Shailendra Vikram Singh, Varanasi resident mastermind Shiv Bahadur and his accomplice Akhilesh.
Meanwhile, on the request of the Himachal Government, the investigation was handed over to the Special Crime Branch of CBI, Chandigarh. The probe agency took action at 50 places in seven states on Tuesday. The question papers of this exam to be held on March 27, 2022 were already leaked.
The network of several middlemen came to the fore in the investigation. An organized network of gangs selling paper to candidates for lakhs of rupees was found in Bihar, Uttarakhand, UP, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.