Thane: The alleged mastermind of Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026 paper leak case and another accused have been arrested from Bihar, a senior Thane police official said on Saturday.
Alleged kingpin Vijayendrakumar alias Bijendra Kumar Gupta and his associate Indrajit Singh were nabbed from Samastipur on Friday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bhiwandi Zone-II, Pawan Bansode said.
It takes the total number of arrests in the case to 14, Bansode told PTI.
Gupta and Singh were brought to Pune on Saturday and then to Bhiwandi. A local court remanded the duo in police custody till July 30.
The SIT had been tracking Gupta for several weeks after his name surfaced as chief coordinator of the inter-state paper leak network, Bansode said.
Apart from Gupta and Singh, the others arrested in the case so far include Rajiv Shaw, Akash Kumar, Dheeraj Singh, Sonu Singh, Mithun Singh, Kapil Dahiya, Gupta's wife Suman Kumari Gupta, and Agra-based private printing press employees Nareshkumar Mahore, Sanjaykumar Sharma, and Babulal Kushwaha.
The paper leak came to light on June 27, when Bhiwandi police, acting on confidential intelligence, raided a location and seized copies of unauthorized question papers.
Subsequent verification with Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) officials confirmed that the seized material matched the actual question paper drafted for the TET scheduled for June 28 across 1,028 examination centres.
The state government subsequently postponed the TET 2026 examination, followed by registration of FIR at Bhiwandi police station and formation of a Special Investigation Team.
DCP Bansode said that with the latest arrests, investigators expect to uncover the complete financial chain behind the racket.
"We will come to know the money transactions, including how much money they had committed or already disbursed, as the probe progresses," he said.
According to the police, some of the accused had visited Pune in an attempt to sell the leaked question paper.
Initial investigations have revealed an organized criminal syndicate operating within the printing network.
"All those working in the printing press are private employees, and they shared long-standing ties with the Mahi Mantram press. Whenever examination papers arrived for printing, they would discuss among themselves how to leak and sell them," the officer stated.
He added that a few more suspects involved in the racket have been identified and efforts are underway to apprehend them.NATIONALTHANE
