Eamcet leak: Sri Chaitanya dean, middleman arrested

HYDERABAD: The high-profile case of TS Eamcet-II-2016 paper leak, which was capitalized by many MBBS aspirants to secure high ranks, got a fresh breakthrough with the arrest of the dean of Sri Chaitanya Junior College and a middleman on Thursday. They were allegedly involved in facilitating several students, access the leaked question paper at a camp in Cuttack.



Till date, 64 persons were arrested by Crime Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the highprofile, pan-India case.

Sri Chaitanya Junior College, Chaitanyapuri, dean V Vasu Babu, who is in charge of six campuses, and K Venkata Sivanarayana Rao, an agent for Narayana and Chaitanya Colleges, were arrested from their respective residences, CID superintendent of police (SP) J Parimala Hana Nuthan said. Vasu Babu was named accused number 89, while Rao was accused number 90.

During investigation of Eamcet-II medical question paper leak case, the CID sleuths had analysed call data record (CDR) and discovered that the two were constantly in touch with other key accused — Dr Dhananjay, Tauqeer and Dr Sandeep Kumar, who had conducted a preparation camp for some MBBS aspirants with the leaked question paper in Cuttack.

Vasu Babu and Rao had met the other accused on several occasions between February and July 2016 in Hyderabad and discussed about the leakage of the question paper. Vasu Babu and Rao assured Dhananjay and two other accused of providing students interested in accessing the question paper in advance. “Vasu Babu and Rao arranged six students for a camp in Cuttack and prepared them for the exam by giving them the leaked question paper. On July 9, 2016, the six students sat for the exam (Eamcet-II) and three of them even secured good ranks as the questions in entrance paper tallied with the leaked one,” the SP said in an official release.

Duo collected Rs 35 lakh from each student

Sri Chaitanya Junior College, Chaitanyapuri, dean V Vasu Babu and broker K Venkata Sivanarayana Rao had collected ₹35 lakh from each student and gave commission to the accused, who facilitated leakage of the question paper. Vasu Babu and Rao were in touch with the accused and parents of interested students. “Vasu Babu used to be in touch with both brokers and parents to help the students get good ranks and money and fame for their institutions,” the CID official said.

When contacted, Sri Chaitanya Group of Institutions’ academic director Sushma Bopanna told TOI: “We have no information. Just heard about it. It’s a personal issue and nothing related to the organisation.”