Bihar 2023 police scam;ED conducts multiple searches
At least a dozen locations of private entities like agents, exam paper leak syndicate members and their associates in Patna and Nalanda in Bihar, Ranchi (Jharkhand), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal) were raided under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
A press in Kolkata in which the exam papers were printed was also covered by the investigators of the federal probe agency, they said.
The masterminds of this alleged scam are the same as that of the NEET UG paper leak 'scam' of 2024, they said.
The Bihar Police Constable 2023 recruitment was aimed to fill 21,391 vacancies across various units of the Bihar police.
The examination was conducted at 529 centres across 37 districts of Bihar on October 1, 2023 attracting over 18 lakh aspirants.
Following allegations of the exam paper leak, it was cancelled by the state central selection board of constables (CSBC) on October 3 that year.
The money laundering case stems from some Bihar Police (economic offences unit or EOU) FIRs. The ED suspects money laundering in this case as a gang of agents generated 'proceeds of crime' (illicit funds) by leaking the exam papers and selling it to aspirants and used the money given by the candidates to create personal assets.
Some Bihar police officials are also under the scanner of the ED, as per the sources.
The state police had arrested seven private people in this case, including three from West Bengal. An inter-state gang headed by Sanjeev Mukhiya was termed by the police as the perpetrators of this paper leak.
Mukhiya has worked as a technical assistant in a government college in Nalanda district. He is currently lodged in judicial custody.
The Bihar EOU found that an accused named Kaushik Kumar Kar had a Kolkata-based firm, Caltex Multiventure Pvt Ltd, and he was awarded the contract to print and supply the question papers for the constable recruitment examination.
However, it was discovered that Caltex Multiventure Pvt Ltd was a a one-room 'shell' company with no employees, and printing and supply of question papers was outsourced to a company named Blessing Secured Press Pvt Ltd, where Kar's wife was a director.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
ED opposes M3M director's plea to quash graft FIR: ‘Don't need sanction to prosecute private person'
The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday opposed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court a plea moved by M3M Director Roop Bansal seeking to quash a corruption case registered against him for allegedly conspiring to bribe a trial court judge. In the case, Bansal is booked under Sections 7, 8, 11 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) along with Section 120-B of the IPC. Bansal's lawyers contended that the proceedings were invalid due to the absence of sanction required under Section 17A of the PCA to prosecute the judge allegedly linked to the bribery. The counsel argued that a person could not be prosecuted solely under Section 120-B for criminal conspiracy unless tried alongside the public servant accused, and that without sanction against the judge, the entire case stood vitiated. Countering this, senior panel counsel Zoheb Hossain, appearing with Lokesh Narang for the ED, contended that the plea of want of sanction was not available to Bansal as he was a private individual, not a public servant. The ED further submitted that even if proceedings against a public servant were barred for lack of sanction, it would not automatically nullify the prosecution of private individuals accused of aiding, abetting, or conspiring to commit offences under the PCA or under Section 120-B of the IPC. After Chief Justice Sheel Nagu had recused from hearing the matter as he had dealt with it on administrative side, Bansal's plea was listed before Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing virtually for the petitioner, sought an adjournment due to network issues. Considering the request, the bench adjourned the matter to July 30 for final arguments. The corruption FIR quashing plea in Roop Bansal vs State of Haryana has seen unusual twists and turns. It was first listed before Justice Anoop Chitkara in October 2023. After change in roster, the matter was listed before Justice NS Shekhawat who recused from hearing the case in January this year. The matter was then listed before Justice Kaul, before whom it was dismissed as withdrawn. It then went to Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu, who heard the matter and reserved for judgment on May 2, with pronouncement due on May 12, when the Chief Justice, citing 'the interest of the institution' and the need to 'preserve and protect the reputation and dignity' of Justice Sindhu, reassigned it to himself on May 10. This case was assigned to Justice Kaul after Chief Justice Nagu recused himself from hearing it on July 3, citing the need to uphold the principle that justice must not only be done but 'should also appear to have been done.'
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Parbhani school assault: Absconding director couple arrested from Pune hotel
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Days after the director couple of a Purna-based residential school were accused in the assault and murder of a farmer in Parbhani, over a school fee and transfer certificate (TC) dispute, they were finally arrested from a hotel in Pune on Tuesday morning. The arrested couple have been identified as 48-year-old Prabhakar Chavan, and his wife Ratnamala (42), both residents of Tuljapurwadi in Vasmat of Hingoli district. The 42-year-old victim, Jagannath Hendge, was allegedly murdered on July-10. Parbhani superintendent of police Ravindrasingh Pardeshi said: "Since being on the run, the accused couple, in an attempt to evade arrest, kept changing their locations. We have found that the accused couple were staying at a Pune-based hotel for the past five to six days." Purna SDPO Samadhan Pawar, who is supervising the investigation, said the accused couple were brought to Parbhani and produced before the local court, which awarded them three-day police custody. The case pertains to the death of a 42-year-old farmer from Ukhald village, who visited a private residential school at Ziro Fata in Parbhani on Thursday to collect his daughter's TC and seek a refund of the fees paid. His daughter, a Std III student, had earlier withdrawn from the hostel due to adjustment issues. During the visit, an argument reportedly broke out between the man and the school management, following which the director and his wife allegedly assaulted him. The farmer sustained serious injuries in the incident and later died. One of the accused is a former education committee chairperson of the Hingoli zilla parishad.
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
ICICI-Videocon loan probe: PMLA appellate body upholds ED's property seizure in case against Chanda Kochhar
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The Appellate Tribunal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has allowed the seizure of properties in a case involving former ICICI Bank chief executive Chanda Kochhar , her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot , overturning a ruling of the Adjudicating Authority to release its order on an appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate that had attached the properties, the tribunal held that the Adjudicating Authority "ignored crucial evidence" and based its ruling on "irrelevant considerations", particularly on the role of Deepak Kochhar in managing NuPower Renewables (NRPL) and a Rs 64 crore loan that the company received from Videocon-linked to the investigating agencies - ED and the CBI - this ₹ 64 crore was a quid pro quid for helping the Videocon Group get a loan from ICICI Bank where Deepak Kochhar's wife was a top executive. The Kochhars and Dhoot have denied the tribunal said the Adjudicating Authority placed undue emphasis on the shareholding structure of NRPL while overlooking material facts, including the control exercised by Deepak Kochhar as its managing director. On paper, the transfer of funds to NRPL may have been shown as from one Videocon Group company to another, "but if the veil is lifted, the affairs were under control of Deepak Kochhar", the tribunal said in its order pronounced tribunal ruled that the property transactions, including the transfer of a flat at CCI Chambers in South Mumbai were "nothing but proceeds of crime ". It noted that the flat purchased by a Videocon-linked entity for ₹3.25 crore was transferred to a family trust associated with Deepak Kochhar for just ₹11 rejected the defence's claim that the sanctioning of the loan to the Videocon Group was a collective decision at ICICI Bank, saying that Chanda Kochhar's active role, lack of disclosure and urgency in approving the loan raised serious concerns. It said as per rules, Chanda Kochhar should not have attended the meeting of a committee that cleared the loan, but she not only participated but also sanctioned the loan under the urgent category."This is taken to be nothing but commission of crime which includes even the offence under Section 420 IPC (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property)," the order upheld the Adjudicating Authority's decision declining to confirm the attachment of ₹ 10.5 lakh seized during a raid on a Kochhar-linked company but confirmed the provisional attachment of all other that it did not find any illegality in the attachment, the tribunal said it "rather find perverse finding in the hands of the Adjudicating Authority on all the issues relevant to the case".
