Telangana: ED, SIT lock horns in paper leak fight

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate has locked horns with the Telangana government's Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the TSPSC paper leak case. The ED has lodged a complaint with the local court against SIT for not cooperating in the probe launched simultaneous by the Central agency.

Sources said that SIT declined to furnish details of probe into the paper leak case to ED official who sought some critical information gathered by the team. The SIT arrested 17 suspects in the case and submitted a report to the High Court recently. The ED launched a probe in the case suspecting money laundering in the entire episode. Some NRIs also attempted TSPSC exams conducted for recruitment of high profile jobs in various government departments. The ED officials approached SIT, but the latter did not furnish the details.

Sources said "without valid information from SIT, the ED will not move further in the investigation. The only option before the Central agency is to knock the court doors and seek directions to get information from the SIT." The SIT report will help ascertain the progress in the investigations as well as to understand the modus operandi in the leak without further probe.

Meanwhile, the ED officials grilled the section officer (confidentiality wing) of the commission Shankara Lakshmi and assistant section officer Satyanarayana for over six hours. They recorded statements of the two officials. The two officials explained the procedure followed in the maintenance of confidentiality in the preparation of question papers and their distribution to the exam centres.