CBI busts departmental exam racket

New Delhi: With the arrest of 26 railway officials, the CBI on Tuesday said it has busted a departmental exam racket in East Central Railway (ECR) and seized Rs 1.17 crore cash.

The railway officials were arrested on Monday night for allegedly leaking papers of departmental examination for the elevation to posts of chief loco pilot at Mughal Sarai, they said, adding the exam was to be conducted on Tuesday.

“During the checks conducted by CBI, at three spots on the intervening night (March 3-4) at Mughal Sarai, a total of 17 candidates were found with photocopies of hand-written question papers,” a CBI spokesperson said. All 17 departmental candidates who are presently working as loco pilots had allegedly paid money for the question paper and were caught red-handed with the copies during the raid, he said.

“Overall, 26 railway officials (including the 17 aspirants) have been arrested in this case so far,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The agency has registered the FIR against a senior divisional electrical engineer (operations) who was given the responsibility for setting and preparing the question paper for the said examination. “He himself had written the questions in English and allegedly gave it to one loco pilot who in turn translated it into Hindi and further gave it to another official. The said official allegedly gave it to the candidates through few other railway employees,” the spokesperson said.