Mumbai: The paper-leak case for clerks in Navy is turning to be murkier as the CBI arrested a senior Naval official for his alleged involvement in the racket and was questioning him about the role of some more people within the command.
The CBI arrested Ramesh C Saini, a commander with INS Angre, here late last night and produced him today before a designated court which remanded him to CBI custody till October 13 for questioning about possible involvement of other Naval officials in the case.
Saini has been accused of leaking the question paper of the lower division clerk exam to the administrative officer in Western Naval Command and president of the examination board RC Naik.
"Saini and Naik, between the period of September 16 to 18, went to Pune to give question papers for printing to Atharva Consultancy and Allied Services printing press. During their stay, Saini had given Naik a copy of the paper and had also permitted him to take a copy of the paper in his pen drive," CBI DIG Pravin Salunkhe claimed before reporters here.
The CBI had on September 26 arrested four persons - Naik, DS Murthi, administrative officer of Eastern Naval Command, Rambhir Singh Rawat, former sailor and owner of Manasa International Defence recruitment agency in Vishakapatnam and Hyderabad based teacher Hoshiyar Singh.
"During searches conducted at the residence of Naik, we recovered torn pieces of the question paper," Salunkhe said adding Naik had then given that pen drive to Rawat in Navi Mumbai on September 19.
Asked if there is involvement of higher naval officials, Salunkhe said, "that can be ascertained only after we interrogate Saini. Naik revealed only Saini`s name to us."
The CBI while seeking custody of Saini, told the court that there is a larger nexus and the involvement of other persons needs to be found out.
"During investigations it has also been learnt that the question papers of an exam held on August 20 and 22 in the Eastern Naval Command were also leaked by Rawat. We need to find out the source," CBI said.
Saini`s lawyer Sharmila Kaushik argued that Saini should be handed over to Naval authorities as he is their officer. The court, however, rejected this.
Meanwhile, the CBI custody of the four other accused has been extended till October 8.
PTI
