TSPSC paper leak: SIT serves notice to Cong leader over allegations

Hyderabad, March 20:  Telangana Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the question paper leak in TSPSC has issued a notice to state Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy, asking him to share whatever information he has about the case.

The SIT, which has stepped up the probe with the questioning of nine accused, is also issuing notices to those making allegations relating to the case.

Revanth Reddy, however, said he has not yet received the SIT notice. He said he was not afraid of SIT notice and would share whatever evidence he has if a judicial probe is ordered in the case.

The development came a day after Revanth Reddy made a serious allegation that state minister K.T. Rama Rao's personal assistant was also involved in the paper leak.

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president had said on Sunday that KTR's personal assistant (PA) Tirupati and one of the key accused in the case, Rajasekhara Reddy, were friends.

He also claimed that Tirupati helped Rajasekhar Reddy get a job in the Telangana State Technological Services (TSTS) on outsourcing basis and later ensured he lands a job in Telangana State Public Service Commission �(TSPSC) in a key role.

Rajasekhar Reddy is one of the two employees of TSPSC who have been arrested by the police for question paper leak. Rajasekhar Reddy, a network expert, allegedly copied question papers of several exams from confidential systems in the Commission and gave the same to Praveen Kumar, who then shared it with some aspirants for money.

During a protest in Kamareddy district on Sunday, the Congress leader had also claimed that Tirupati and Rajasekhar are friends hailing from neighbouring villages in Malyala mandal of Jagtiyal district and that 100 people belonging to Malyal mandal secured more than 100 marks in Group-1 Prelims. He had demanded that TSPSC should reveal names of 100 people who scored more than 100 marks.

The TPCC chief had also alleged irregularities in 2016 Group-1 results. He said that Madhur, the topper of that exam, came straight from the US to write the exam and secured the first rank. Rajinikanth Reddy, a TSPSC employee, secured fourth rank in that exam.

Revanth Reddy demanded a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court saying a thorough probe was needed to find out from which year the question paper leak was going on.

The TSPSC had conducted the examination on March 5 for 833 vacancies of Assistant Engineer, Municipal Assistant Engineer, Technical Officer, and Junior Technical Officer in various engineering departments. A total of 55,000 candidates had written the exam.

However, the Commission suspected leakage of the question paper and lodged a complaint with the police.

On March 13, police arrested nine people, including two employees of the TSPSC.

Following the arrest of the accused, the Commission cancelled the exam and also postponed other exams scheduled to be held later this month.

Amid doubts that the accused may have leaked question papers of some other exams, the Commission on Friday decided to cancel three other exams, including Group I Prelims.

Nearly 2.86 lakh aspirants of Group I posts had appeared in Group-I exam conducted on October 16, 2022.