CBI conducts searches at 12 locations in Railways exam paper leak case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday conducted searches at around a dozen locations in Gujarat and Maharashtra in a case related to the leakage of question and answer papers of the railway recruitment examination.

A senior CBI official confirmed that raids are underway at around 12 places including Surat, Amreli, Navsari, Mumbai, Buxar and others in a case related to leakage of question and answer papers of the General Departmental Competitive Examination (GDCE) conducted by the Railway Recruitment Centre, Western Railways, Mumbai which led to the recovery of digital evidence and incriminating documents.

A case was registered on a complaint from Western Railway, against certain officials of Railways and others including unidentified officials of a Mumbai-based private company on the allegations of leaking question and answer papers of the exam.

It was alleged that the computer-based test for the post of Non-Technical Popular Categories (Non-Graduate) Jr Clerk Cum Typist and Trains Clerk against GDCE Quota, was held on January 1, 2021, in which a total of 8,603 candidates appeared in the 28 examination centres across six cities such as Ahmedabad, Indore, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Mumbai.

Some candidates were allegedly provided the paper through WhatsApp messages and few candidates were physically shown the question papers through mass gathering. It was also alleged that the said firm was appointed as the Examination Conducting Agency.

It was further alleged that the candidates appearing in the GDC Examination were supplied with question papers along with answers prior to the commencement of the examination after payment of money. Moreover, after a few days of examination, they were also allegedly supplied examination results through an unverified WhatsApp link. An investigation into this matter is underway.