Kolhapur Police Foil TET Paper Leak Plot Hours Before Exam; Racket Spanned Multiple Tehsils In Western Maharashtra

Pune: To be a professor or teacher in a college, it's important to pass the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). This exam is taken by the Maharashtra Government, and the last of it was taken on Sunday. A few people from Maharashtra's Kolhapur claimed to give the paper and took some money and documents from the aspirants of the exam before that.

Kolhapur Superintendent of Police Yogesh Kumar received a tip-off from a confidential source regarding a paper leak in the Shivkrupa Furniture Mall in Sonage Village of Kagal Tehsil of Kolhapur. He gave orders regarding strict action to the Local Crime Branch (LCB) regarding this.

Officials from LCB and the Detection Branch (DB) Murgud Police Station collaborated and raided the place where this meetup was happening in the wee hours of Sunday, around 1.15 am. At the place where the lead paper was supposed to be provided, five people were found -- including Dattatraya Chavan, Gurunath Chowgule, Akshay Kumbhar, Kiran Barkale, and Nagesh Shendge (all residents of Radhanagari Tehsil). They all were working for a man named Rahul Patil of Gadhinglaj Tehsil.

Police further said that Rahul Patil was supposed to bring the photocopy of TET's question paper of Sunday's exam before the exam began. The five people present at the spot were students who were going to appear for the TET exam on Sunday in Kolhapur. They all had original educational documents, blank cheques, a printer, and other materials.

Police drafted a punchnama and asked the people on the spot to call this Rahul Patil, who said he would arrive shortly. Rahul Patil and Dayanand Salvi (Kagal) arrived, and they were detained too. They said they were going to receive the paper from Mahesh Gaikwad, and he received the paper through his agents. This is a big racket where examination papers were leaked, and they used to collect the documents of people who all appeared for the exam. After that, they waited for exam results and then returned the documents. The accused charged money for this. All of them have been arrested.

During the investigation, a total property worth Rs 16 lakh was seized, including students' educational documents, a printer, mobile handsets, a four-wheeler vehicle, and other materials. Police Constable Yuvraj Patil from LCB filed a complaint at Murgun Police Station. Following the registration of the case, further investigation of the detained accused led to the apprehension of ten accomplices who were assisting them, from Kolhapur and Karad. A total of 17 people have been detained, and the Murgud Police are investigating the matter further.