Arunachal Pradesh police has arrested five persons in connection with the alleged leak of the question paper for the assistant engineers (civil) mains examination conducted by Arunachal Pradesh State Public Service Commission (APSPSC) in August, a senior police official said here on Tuesday.

The arrested are the deputy secretary and deputy controller of the examination, a teacher at a coaching institute, a candidate for the examination, his father who is a head assistant at the office of the deputy director of school education in Siang district and a middleman, Capital superintendent of police Jimmy Chiram said.

The initial probe revealed that the candidate’s father had approached the middleman in 2021 to find a link to procure the question paper for the mains examination for his son. The middleman had bribed the deputy controller of examination and the question papers were procured illegally and given to the candidate before the test was held, he said.

During the investigation, it was found that the sealed question paper was copied by the deputy controller of examination and sent to the candidate through the middleman.

The candidate had reportedly consulted the teacher for solution to the procured question paper. The teacher had allegedly revealed the questions to another student, who filed a written complaint on the alleged question paper leak to the police on 29 August 2022 – two days after the examination, Chiram said.

The preliminary enquiry was conducted on receipt of the complaint and the report was submitted to the SP’s office on 10 September. The case was registered subsequently.

During investigation it was found that the middleman was paid Rs 43 lakh in cash by the candidate’s father in 2021 to procure the question paper of the mains examination. The middleman had given Rs 15 lakh to the deputy controller of examination and kept the rest with him. The two had invested the money for property, the SP said.

A special investigation team has been constituted and police have seized two vehicles, invoice and cash memos for the procurement of hardware items and other materials related to the case, Chiram added.

Earlier, two candidates had alleged that the paper of the main examination were leaked and petitioned the court for a stay in the declaration of its result.

A total 415 candidates had appeared for 33 posts of assistant engineer in the examination.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu has said that the government will not tolerate any corruption, and anyone found to have been involved in the incident will not be spared irrespective of his or her position.

I assure the candidates and the people that action will be taken against the guilty and the point of leakage will be investigated and rectified so that it is not repeated in future, Khandu said in a statement recently.

He had directed the police to investigate the incident and assured that “no one will be allowed to play with the future of youths”.

Those found involved (in the question paper leak) will have to face the music, he asserted.