Thiruvananthapuram: The Crime Branch has booked five people over the leakage of question paper of the civil police officer test conducted at the University College by the Public Service Commission (PSC). The action comes after the internal vigilance team of the PSC provided evidence to this effect. The accused in the case include three leaders of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) involved in the recent stabbing case reported from the same college.
The PSC vigilance team handed over its probe report to Crime Branch the other day.
R Sivaranjith, PP Pranav and AN Naseem, three of the accused, had scored top ranks in the PSC exam. They are also the accused in the stabbing of another student, Akhil, on the college campus last month.
The other two accused in the PSC exam fraud case are Gokul, a constable at Perurkkada SAP Camp, and Kallara native Safeer, who allegedly sent the answers for the police test via a smartphone.
Senior police officers stated Gokul will be suspended from service over his involvement.
Both Gokul and Safeer are in hiding. The phone numbers they had used to send the answer messages for exam fraud are now switched off.
The answers were sent from four different numbers. However, Naseem’s phone number registered with the PSC received no messages. It is being investigated whether he used another number during the test.
Some employees at the college might have got hold of the answer sheets, which were then handed to Gokul and Safeer. Police have found their phones were located under a Palayam mobile tower, leading the PSC team to believe they were inside Sanskrit College, near the University College, while sending the messages.
The police believe these messages did contain answers to the PSC questions.
Sivaranjith and Pranav planned the fraud, the PSC team found out. The PSC also suspects the role of Akhil, who was stabbed at the college, a reason why the case was quickly transferred to the Crime Branch.
The statements of Sivaranjith and Naseem, who are in remand in the stabbing case, will be registered soon.
SP A Shanavas of Crime Branch’s Thiruvananthapuram office is heading the probe.
As the exam fraud came to limelight, DGP Loknath Behra had said Crime Branch would investigate it. However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had then said there was no such need. The case was finally transferred after PSC vigilance team too confirmed the fraud.
Sivaranjith had secured the first rank, Pranav the second rank and Nizam the 27th rank in the PSC test which is under scrutiny.
Fresh lookout notice against 11 in stabbing case
The Thiruvananthapuram Cantonment Police have issued a fresh look-out notice against 11 accused in the University College stabbing case. Two among them had featured on a notice issued earlier.
The names on the list are University College students Muhammed Ibrahim, PP Pranav, Nidhin, Muhammed Aslam, Harish, Ranjith, Amar, former students Nandakishore, Haidar Shanavas, Government Sanskrit College students Arunkumar and Nasim.
All are SFI activists, police said.
No bail for Sivaranjith
A magistrate court denied bail for Sivaranjith in another case related to the seizure of Kerala University answer sheets from his house.
The judge ruled in favour of the prosecution, accepting its argument that more investigating needs to be held in the case.
The current case is only of theft.
The police are awaiting more information from the Kerala University and University College regarding the answer sheets. More charges will be filed once more evidence is found, the police say.
A decision where or not to include Pranav in the same case will depend on fresh evidence.
As one of the answer sheets recovered from Sivaranjith’s house had Pranav’s register number, police suspect they were acting in tandem.
Last month a minor altercation among students over singing of songs in the canteen of the University College worsened into a full-blown campus fight leading to the stabbing of Akhil allegedly by SFI members. The row and probe over this led to the unravelling of exam malpractices by SFI activists involved in the stabbing case. It is alleged they cheated both in the PSC test and Kerala University examinations held at their college in the heart of the Kerala capital.