Three More Suspects Arrested in Bhiwandi TET Paper Leak Case
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) question paper leak brought three newly arrested suspects, including wanted accused Kapil Dahiya, to Kongaon in Bhiwandi on Thursday. The suspects, who were apprehended from Punjab and Bihar, were produced before a local court and remanded to police custody until July 9, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to seven.
Dahiya, who had been absconding, was arrested in Pathankot, Punjab, after the police issued a Look Out Circular (LOC) against him. The other two suspects, identified as Sonu Singh and Mithun Singh, were arrested in Bihar for allegedly helping the main accused, Bijendra Gupta, evade arrest.
According to the police, Sonu Singh, a resident of Hajipur in Bihar, runs a local photocopy shop. Under Gupta’s instructions, he allegedly prepared fake identity cards and printed multiple photocopies of the leaked question papers. Police recovered forged identity cards belonging to Gupta from Sonu’s possession. Mithun Singh, who is Gupta's brother-in-law, was arrested in Patna. Police stated that Mithun was part of the conspiracy and had accompanied Dahiya to Pune to identify prospective buyers for the leaked papers.
The arrests follow the previous apprehension of Gupta's wife, Suman Kumari, in Patna, and three others—Dhiraj Singh, Akash Kumar, and Rajiv Kumar. The latter three were arrested on June 27 after they allegedly arrived in Kongaon to sell the leaked question papers. Dahiya had accompanied Dhiraj Singh to Kongaon to identify buyers but fled to Pune and Delhi after learning of the arrests.
The paper leak came to light after Deputy Commissioner of Police Pawan Bansode launched a covert operation in which a police inspector posed as a prospective buyer. After the accused believed they had found a customer, they contacted Gupta, who dispatched Rajiv Kumar and Akash Kumar with four sets of leaked question papers. Police laid a trap at a hotel in Kongaon and arrested Dhiraj, Akash, and Rajiv. The Maharashtra TET examination, which was scheduled to be held at 1,028 centres across the state, was postponed after the leak came to light.
