Ahmedabad: Days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) exposed the head clerks paper leak racket and enforced a police inquiry in it, the BJP-ruled Gujarat Government on Tuesday eventually cancelled the December 12 exam.
Simultaneously, though, the State Police arrested 70 people, including Gujarat AAP chief Gopal Italiya and journalist-turned-AAP leader Isudan Gadhvi for laying siege to the BJP headquarters in Gandhinagar on Monday.
Six of them have even been remanded to police custody. In the case of Gopal Italiya, the police even detained his lawyer and relative who had come for his bail.
However, the fact remains that this is for the first time in three decades that an opposition party’s pressure on any issue has brought the all-powerful BJP to its knees in Gujarat. The Congress party remained a fringe protestor.
Addressing a press conference in Gandhinagar, Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi informed reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel that the government has decided to cancel the exam “in the larger interest of the aspirants.”
The exam to fill 186 vacancies of head clerks received over 2 lakh applications and 88,000 candidates appeared for the December 12 test. AAP’s youth wing leader Yuvrajsinh Jadeja had the very next day claimed that the paper had leaked and even produced evidence to prove this.
Emerging from the denial mode, the BJP Government conceded that the paper had leaked and ordered a police probe.
Some 24 police teams cracked the racket and arrested at least 14 people in the scam, while more arrests are likely. On Tuesday, the police also nabbed the kingpin, Jayesh Patel.
Sanghavi told reporters that the paper leak case would be “tried in a fast track court to set an example”.
Asked about action against Asit Vora, chairman of the Gujarat Subordinates Services Selection Board (GSSSB), which conducted the exam, the minister and Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil said nobody would involved in the leak would be spared. Paatil said, “No evidence has been found against Vora so far. If he is involved, we will act against him also.”
“A fresh exam will be conducted in March 2022 in a more transparent manner and using a different method. All the candidates who had filled up forms for the previous test will be considered eligible for the new test,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, the Gandhinagar police on Monday night arrested Jayesh Patel (39), claimed to be the main accused in the entire conspiracy behind the exam question paper leak.
