MPSC Drug Inspector Exam Paper Leak: Special Court Denies Bail To Accused, Rejects Whistleblower Defence

Mumbai: The special court has refused to accept the defence of 26 year old Lokesh Patil arrested for his role in leaking the question paper for the exam held by MPSC for the post of Drug inspector held in 2025. The court said that he had the question bank two days prior to the exam, while he chose to complain about it after about four months.

Delay In Complaint Raises Questions

The court while refusing to grant bail to Patil said, “If it was the case that the present accused is merely the receiver of the question paper in his mobile without any further discussion about its circulation and had he immediately reported the matter to Authority, he could have been termed as a whistle blower. It is apparent that he had received a question bank prior to two days of the exam date whereas he has made a complaint to the authority after about four months. It is prima-facie made out that he had consciously received the question sets on whatsapp from his friend for further mis-use.”

The investigation into the alleged paper leak of the MPSC exam was initiated on the complaint of Patil, which he lodged through email on July 24. Patil had sought bail claiming that he had prayed for bail on the grounds that he is the whistle blower being the original complainant.

Defence Alleges Prejudiced Investigation

Patil claimed that the investigating agency acted with extreme prejudice and mala-fide, making him the accused. It was contended that he was merely a passive recipient of whatsapp messages from his friend and there was no meeting of mind with the other accused. That the document in question is merely a probable question set comprising question bank of 294 questions and it is not a leaked question paper. That the present applicant himself is not beneficiary of said question paper, Patil’s lawyers contended.

The plea was opposed by the public prosecutor Jaysingh Desai, who said, ‘he has received 25 images of photographs at 11.05 pm on March 20 and that the whatsapp chat also reveals the intention to sell out such question sets to other candidates appearing for such exams.’ The agency is still probing this aspect.

Complaint Withdrawn Two Days Later

Besides, the prosecution claimed that though Patil had initially made a complaint to MPSC by e-mail, he withdrew the complaint by further e-mail dated July 26. He has suppressed the fact of paper leakage from March 20 to July 21 and that his chat has revealed the intention to mis-use said question set.

The court noted that, he had received the set of 294 questions from his friend on March 20 on his whatsapp and about 78 questions from those 294 questions were found in the question paper of said exam held on March 22and his friend Rutuja, from whom he had received the question bank, was declared as the merit holder at 7.

The court noted Patil’s conduct as after sending a mail of complaint he retracted it saying, exam was not leaked but the question bank received on his whatsapp was in contrast with the exam paper of MPSC. He claimed that he had earlier stated about leakage of questions in exam papers only for the sake of fun and that Rutuja has not received any question bank and the set of questions sent on whatsapp was the question bank of test series.

This the court said, “Such contradictory statements of the present accused filed by him on record itself is prima-facie indicative of lack of his overall veracity and sincerity thereby. However, rather than his statements, the investigation into such statements would be more relevant.”

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