The ongoing investigation into the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) scam on Saturday took a new twist with the Pune Police arresting IAS officer Sushil Khodwekar of the rank of deputy secretary from the agriculture department.
Khodwekar, who belongs to the 2011 IAS batch, was deputy secretary in the department of school education and sports in 2019-20 when the alleged malpractices took place in the TET. A Pune Police officer said Khodwekar was arrested from Thane, taking the total number of persons arrested in the TET scam case to 13.
Earlier, 12 persons – including the commissioner (now suspended) of the Maharashtra State Council of Examinations (MSCE) Tukaram Supe – were arrested in connection with the alleged tampering of the TET results. The investigation further revealed that the consultant to the Department of Education Abhijit Savrikar was in constant touch with Khodwekar and they were involved in taking money, ranging between Rs 35,000 and a couple of lakhs, from candidates to increase their TET scores. Incidentally, Savrikar has also been arrested by the Pune Police. Pritesh Deshmukh, the director of the firm GA Software which was responsible for conducting the exam, is also among those arrested.
Khodwekar's arrest came a day after the investigation by the Pune Police revealed that the marks of almost 7,800 candidates in the TET held in 2018 and 2020 were allegedly manipulated and changed in exchange for money. The police have prepared a list of all these people and it will be given to the state government. "The marks of these candidates were allegedly tampered with in exchange for money," said the police.
As reported by the Free Press Journal, the investigation is linked to malpractices in various state government examinations. It started with the paper leak in the recruitment process of Group D employees in the Public Health Department held in November last year. Thereafter, the Pune Cyber Police exposed a question paper leak in the recruitment of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority after an alert was sounded by the housing minister Jitendra Awhad. The Pune Police are also currently engaged in the investigation of the TET scam and also a paper leak in the Group C recruitment of the Public Health Department.
The police said together they have nabbed 36 persons in connection with the irregularities in these recruitment exams. They have also seized assets of over Rs 7 crore from them.
