KPTCL exam scam: Three more arrested

NT Correspondent

 Bengaluru

Belagavi police probing the irregularities in the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) recruitment examination have arrested three more people and are interrogating them.

The accused have been identified as Adesh Naganuri, a guest lecturer at the government degree college in Hukkeri; Madiwalappa Thoranagatti and Shankar Unakal. The police said the accused were arrested after they were found using Bluetooth devices to help their relative crack the examination.

The number of arrests in the case has gone up to 12. However, four suspects are still at large, police said. On January 24 this year, KPTCL had invited applications to fill 1,492 posts in the department. This included 505 assistant engineers (power), 28 assistant engineers (civil), 570 junior engineers (power), 29 junior engineers (civil) and 360 junior assistants. The exams for technical posts were held on August 23 and 24 and aptitude tests for junior assistants and Kannada language examination for technical positions were held on August 7.

The police arrested a man identified as Siddappa Madihalli, in the state’s Belagavi district when they found him using a smartwatch while writing the exam on August 7. He had sent question papers using the smartphone and was receiving answers through Bluetooth. The action came after another aspirant complained to the staff about it and when CCTV footage was checked, it showed Madihalli using his smartphone. Naganuri had received the question paper on the Telegram application from Madihalli and had sent him answers, said the police.

 Sources from the police said that Naganuri was at a farmhouse, 30 km away from the exam centre and had been providing answers to an aspirant over the bluetooth device. The police took Madihalli in custody and raided the farm. They found a question paper copy with the registration number of the municipal college in Gadag at the farm. The police probe has indicated the question paper was leaked from the Gadag municipal college where vice-principal Maruti Sonavane and his son Samith Kumar were involved. Samith had entered the exam centre posing as a journalist and had taken photos of the question paper, said the police.

Belagavi Superintendent of Police Sanjeev M Patil said it is evident that malpractice took place in JSS PU College in Gokak and the municipal college in Gadag. “We suspect some of the examination centres in Athani in Belagavi district were also compromised. Among the arrested, there are aspirants who wrote examinations, people who leaked question papers, and also some of the government officials involved,” added Patil.

The police suspect that Sanjay Bandari alias Sanju is the kingpin of the scam. They also suspect the gang collected Rs 3-5 lakh from candidates to provide answers using electronic gadgets, including smartwatches and Bluetooth devices