The Hindu : Printing press employee detained in CAT case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 01, 2003

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National

Printing press employee detained in CAT case

New Delhi Nov. 30. In a breakthrough in the leakage of Common Admission Test (CAT) papers for the Indian Institutes of Management, the CBI tonight detained a lower-rung employee of Mumbai-based printing press, Institute of Banking Personnel Services (IBPS), who allegedly let out the question paper even as the role of IIM, Ahmedabad in the scam was being probed.

CBI sources said a lower rung employee took a Rs. 2 lakh bribe and leaked the paper from IBPS, a semi-government organisation responsible for printing CAT question papers.

The breakthrough, a week after the leakage, came when an accused identified the employee to the CBI team camping in Mumbai since Friday, the sources said.

The agency would register his statement after which a decision about arresting him would be taken, they said.

But IBPS has denied any involvement in the leakage of question paper and welcomed the CBI probe.

Some members of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, which had the administrative control over this year's CAT exams, would also be questioned, CBI sources said.

Referring to the involvement of IIM faculty members, the sources said some professors were on the watch list as they might have tipped-off Ranjit Singh, the alleged kingpin in the leakage racket, about the question paper finally selected for the test.

IIM has a procedure of printing three sets of question papers and the decision about which one would be given to the candidates is taken at the last stage.

CBI sources said this information must have been leaked by some IIM faculty member to Singh.

This puts to rest all speculation that the agency had given any clean chit to any of the IIMs in the country.

Another CBI team was camping in Patna along with Singh alias Ranjit Don and questioning his associates.

The team is also collecting the various reports lodged against Singh with Bihar police, the sources said.

The CBI would soon seek custody of the 17 accused arrested by Pune and Delhi Police in connection with CAT question paper leakage and was studying their interrogation reports to unravel the ramifications of the scam, the sources said.

The agency was trying to establish whether they were part of the same racket or acting as separate entities, they said. — PTI

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