LRD paper leak: 1 of the main accused held from Gurugram

On Tuesday, during a joint operation conducted by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Gujarat, Ahmedabad Crime branch and Delhi police, one of the main conspirators in the LRD paper leak case, Vinod Chikkara, was arrested.

According to officials, with the help of the technical team, they were able to track down Chikkara, who was hiding in Gurgaon and a team was sent to the spot from where he was arrested.

During his interrogation, it was revealed that Chikkara was working with the other accused identified as Virendra Mathur and Vinay Arora who had already been arrested in the case. It also revealed that Chikkara was the one who provided the papers to Virendra Mathur, for which, he was promised Rs 1 crore by Mathur. Mathur called his man named Monu from Gujarat to verify the paper, after which, an advance of Rs 9.7 lakh cash was given to Chikkara. On December 2, after the accused found out that the exam had been cancelled, Chikkara never contacted Mathur and changed his appearance and his house to hide from cops.

Further investigation also revealed in 2010, Chikkara had joined the Delhi Police Department as a police constable. After the police officials found out that he had used fake documents to join the force, in 2015, he was removed from the department. In 2017, with the help of his gang members, he also stole NEET exam paper from a printing press in Karnataka and was later arrested in the matter.

LRD paper leak case

The LRD recruitment exam for December 2, 2018, was cancelled after officials found out that the paper had been leaked. The new dates of the exam were fixed for January 6.

It was earlier revealed during an investigation by Gujarat police that Vinay Arora and Vinod Chikkara had gotten the information that the papers were going to be printed at the Manipal Printing Press located in Karnataka. The question paper was stolen from the press by two accused assigned by Arora and Chikkara on November 20, 2018, for which both were paid by him.

Later, Arora and Chikkara sold the paper to Virendra Mathur. After which, Mathur contacted people from Gujarat and Delhi. Later, three accused identified as Suresh Pandya, Nilesh Chauhan and Ashwin Parmar made arrangements for 28 students from Gujarat to travel to Delhi to see the question paper.

So far, the police have arrested a total of 16 people in relation to the case and further investigation is on.