Hyderabad, June 25: The Railway Recruitment Board examination paper leak scam, unearthed recently by the Central Bureau of Investigation, appears to be more than meets the eye. The premier investigating agency is of the view that RRB examination paper leaks have been occurring for the past 10 years.
The CBI today produced the two arrested Indian Railway Service officers _ Satyendra Mohan Sharma, the suspended RRB Mumbai chairman, and G Sethi, senior divisional personnel officer at Raipur _ before a court here. The court remanded the two accused in judicial custody till July 1.
Meanwhile, the CBI sleuths have identified the involvement of 17 persons in the scam. “Till now 10 persons have been arrested and a search is on to nab the other accused. A couple of them are railway officials,” CBI sources said.
The CBI also moved a petition seeking the custody of the Sharma of Haryana and Sethi of Orissa for 10 days. The court posted the matter for hearing to tomorrow.
CBI officials said the scam might involve several crores of rupees as men at every level involved in the scam received money. “It is like a chain system. The RRB chairman struck a deal for Rs 1 crore for each examination paper leaked. Similarly, the next level of officer to whom the paper was handed over also got an amount. We are ascertaining the number of people, right from the RRB chairman to the subagents at the ground level, involved in the scam and the amount involved,” sources said.
According to CBI officials, Sharma recieved Rs 75 lakh of the Rs 1 crore for for which the deal was struck. CBI sleuths also found that examination papers had been leaked by officials in the earlier examinations too. “It is suspected that this is the first time that the amount involved in the scam was so huge,” the officials said.
Moreover, railways is not the only department where this kind of scams occurred and unearthed. The CBI had investigated the leak of question papers of examinations held for recruitment to paramilitary forces, officials said.
—Agencies