ATS takes 15 suspects in custody

Gandhinagar: After the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board's (GPSSB) Junior clerk competitive written exams were cancelled on Sunday following the paper leak, the ATS rounded up 15 suspects.

A total of 9,53,000 candidates had applied for 1,150 posts of junior clerk. The exams were to be held at 2,995 centres across the state, for which 70,000 examination staff and 7,500 police personnel were deployed.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Gujarat has rounded up 15 suspects for the alleged involvement in the paper leak. Some of the suspects are from Vadodara, and the key conspirator or prime accused is alleged to be the one involved in the Odisha competitive exam paper leak, said sources.

According to the police sources, five police teams have been dispatched to Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi to arrest more suspects involved in the racket.

On Sunday early morning, the GPSSB secretary through a statement announced the exams to be cancelled because papers had been leaked. By the time the board announced the paper leak and appealed to the candidates not to reach the exams centres, many had already reached.

A group of candidates staged a protest at the Lunawada ST depot and chanted slogans against the government. Ajay, a candidate from Bhavnagar, who had come from Bhavnagar to Ahmedabad to take the exams, said he travelled at night, reached around 2 a.m., and then came to know that the exam had been cancelled. He said, "It is a failure of the government for which the candidates like me will have to suffer. For the last two years I have been preparing for this competitive exams."

Congress legislative Party leader Amit Chavda condemned the paper leak, and demanded strict action against those involved in the racket. He even demanded that those sitting in top positions should take moral responsibility for the failure to hold examinations.