Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Question papers of contractual staff nurses’ examination, being conducted by the National Health Mission (NHM), were sold for Rs 3 lakh each.
Gwalior police busted an inter-state gang and arrested its eight members on Tuesday, official sources said.
The NHM is conducting the examination through the Strategic Alliance Management Services Private Ltd to recruit staff in MP.
Superintendent of police in Gwalior, Amit Sanghi, told Free Press that on Tuesday the examinations had been scheduled in two sittings –from 10 am to 12 noon and from 3pm to 5pm.
The police got an input that some fraudsters, involved in the paper leak scam, were lodged in a hotel at Tekanpur.
A team led by additional superintendent of police Rajesh Dandotia raided the hotel. Dandotia said eight people from different parts of the country were selling and solving the papers.
Each paper was sold for Rs 3 lakh. The gang had taken the original documents of the candidates and a token money to provide the question papers.
It was decided that when the candidates will pay the rest of the money after the examination, they will get back their documents, Dandotia said.
He further said the gang had sold the papers to other members in different parts of the state, including Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Sagar, Ratlam and Rewa.
In the preliminary inquiry, it came to light that the ringleader of the gang, a resident of Prayagraj in UP, was in contact with the agency.
He further said the police had seized a laptop, two printers, a bunch of question papers, some solved papers, documents of the candidates from the hotel room.
Those who have been arrested are Dhananjay Pandey (32), resident of Prayagraj in UP, Rajnish Jaat (35) and Jogindar Jaat (42) residents of Sonitpat in Haryana, Riahikant Tyagi (34) from Gwalior, Sourabh Tiwari (22), from Mirzapur in UP, Manish Paswan (28) from Nalanda in Bihar, Vipin Sharma (25) from Ater in Bhind and Deepur Pandey (29) from Gwalior.
Immediately after the scam came to light, NHM cancelled the examination. Chief administrative officer of NHM, KK Rawat, issued a letter to the agency cancelling the examination.
Politics begins after paper leak
After the question paper was leaked, politics began. The Congress leaders attacked the BJP government alleging their nexus with the fraudsters.
Leader of opposition Govind Singh said it was unfortunate that the paper was out disappointing thousands of students. The question paper leak is an example of a nexus between the racketeers and the government, he said.
After several years, the government announced 2,500 posts of staff nurse, and over 60,000 aspirants took the examination, but they were upset, he said.
A team of the medical wing of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) met the NHM officials asking them to black list the agency and institute a probe.
Nearly 70 candidates gave money
It came to light that around 500 candidates across the state gave money to the racketeers. At every centre, more than 50 candidates gave money to get through the test.
Agency made responsible: NHM MD
Managing Director of NHM Priyanka Das said she had made the agency responsible for the lapse. An action will be taken soon, she said.
