Army Major sent to police custody till March 15 in Army recruitment paper leak case

Pune City Police on Sunday arrested an Army Major Thiru Murgan from Wellington in Tamil Nadu in an ongoing investigation of a case related to an Army recruitment examination paper leak. A Pune sessions court sent him to police custody till March 15 on Monday.

The accused allegedly forwarded a question paper to his other associates through Whatsapp before the date of examination.

Additional Sessions judge, SR Navandar, granted custody of the accused to Pune city police till March 15.

"The accused is a key person in the conspiracy of leaking the paper. There may be various links of this conspiracy. Due to the unlawful activity, the entire recruitment process has been stalled and examination has been postponed. Looking at the seriousness of the crime and to conduct a thorough investigation, police custody has to be granted," the court order said.

Public Prosecutor Prem Kumar Agrawal said during the hearing that the accused has shared the exam paper through Whatsapp with the other accused arrested in the case earlier.

"We need to investigate as to where did he get the question paper from and who all are involved in the crime. The other accused arrested in the case were running a training institute and they were supplied the question papers by the accused," he said.

Advocate Rahul Lonandkar, appearing for the accused, said that all the materials, including the electronic devices such as mobile have already been seized and "there is no need to grant the physical custody of the accused to police".

Earlier, Pune City Police, in a joint operation, with Military Intelligence had arrested 8 accused including two serving defence personnel, a defence civilian and some of the other accused who were running pre-military training institutes in various parts of the country.

The recruitment exam was scheduled for February 28 at 40 locations across the country and was later cancelled.

A total of nine accused have been arrested in the case so far, including the Major.

( With inputs from ANI )