In a major crackdown, the CBI has arrested nine railway officials in connection with a Departmental Examination Paper Leak Scam involving the East Central Railway at Mughal Sarai, just ahead of an exam scheduled for March 5. According to authorities, 26 railway officials have now been arrested in total, with investigators seizing Rs 1.17 crore in cash, allegedly collected from candidates in exchange for leaking the examination question papers.
The scam centers around a departmental exam for the positions of Chief Loco Inspectors, scheduled for Tuesday. On March 3, the CBI conducted surprise checks at three locations past midnight in Mughal Sarai, where they discovered 17 candidates in possession of photocopies of handwritten question papers. These candidates were promptly arrested, and investigations revealed that they had paid to obtain the leaked papers.
Among those arrested were Sushant Prashar, Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer (Ops), and Indu Prakash, Senior DEE, both of whom were directly involved in preparing and distributing the leaked papers. The investigation revealed that Indu Prakash, tasked with setting the exam, wrote the questions in English, which were then translated into Hindi by a Loco Pilot. The translated papers were passed along to an OS (Trg.), who allegedly distributed them to candidates via other railway employees.
The CBI arrested several railway employees accused of taking bribes to distribute the question papers. As the investigation unfolded, it became clear that Krishan Yadav, one of the accused, had promised a candidate that the leaked question paper would be delivered on the night of March 3, ahead of the exam.
In addition to the nine officials arrested, the CBI seized both the handwritten and photocopied question papers. Upon inspection, the photocopies were found to perfectly match the original question paper.
The investigation is still ongoing, with further arrests expected as the CBI works to uncover more details of the scam.
