The Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed to investigate the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak issue questioned the two accused employees of the commission on Saturday about the manner in which they stole the confidential documents.
The SIT started its first day of interrogation of the total nine accused on Saturday after the court allowed police six days custody of the gang.
The investigating officials took Pulidindi Praveen Kumar, who worked as an assistant section officer at the TSPSC, and Atla Rajashekar Reddy, a network admin at TSPSC, to the office on Saturday morning and they were accompanied by the Cyber Crimes team. There, they were questioned for about two hours. It was revealed that the duo were careful with their movements in the office for stealing the question papers and also allegedly tampered with the CCTV cameras on the office premises.
Praveen and Rajashekar were accused of teaming up with others in leaking the papers of Assistant Engineer (AE Civil) exam by copying the file from the office computer. After the arrest, the case was handed over to the SIT by Hyderabad City Police Commissioner C.V. Anand.
It was also revealed that they started the planning several weeks ago and the role of any other parties in the case is also being probed. They were questioned about how they managed to change the IP addresses and passwords to gain access to the confidential files. Officials also grilled them about their activities over the past few weeks and questioned them about the people that they met.
Sources said that Praveen was evasive with his replies during the questioning and the officials caught his bluff while corroborating his statement with that of others and tallying it with the timeline of events.
Praveen’s friend Renuka, a teacher, and her husband Lavdyavath Dhakya, took the papers and sold it to others with the help of Kethavath Srinivas, a police constable from Medchal. “Praveen Kumar and Rajashekar handed over the papers for ₹5 lakh on March 2. Subsequently, another ₹5 lakh was handed over to Praveen on March 6 after the exam was conducted,” police said.
