A Chandigarh court on Friday framed charges agains the nine accused in the Haryana Civil Services (judiciary) question paper leak case.

Those against whom charges have been framed include Balwinder Sharma, registrar (recruitment) of the Punjab & Haryana HC, advocate Tejinder Bishnoi, Congress leader Sunil Chopra, beneficiaries Sunita & Sushila, Kuldeep Kumar (Sunita’s brother), Ayushi, her father Subhash Godara & uncle Sushil Bhadu.

Charges framed against Sharma are under sections 8 (taking gratification, in order, by corrupt or illegal means, to influence public servant), 9 (taking gratification, for exercise of personal influence with public servant) & 13(1)D (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act & sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating & dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120B (criminal conspiracy) & 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code.

Sunita has been framed with charges under sections 8 & 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act & sections 409, 420, 120B & 409 of the Indian Penal Code. Against other co-accused — Sushila, Bhadu, Ayushi, Godara, Kuldeep, Bishnoi & Chopra — charges have been framed under sections 409, 420, 120 B & 409 of the Indian Penal Code.

A HC committee looking into the case had recommended scrapping of the examination after prima facie finding that some candidates had access to the question paper.

Sharma, Sunita & Sushila were arrested in the case following High Court directions. Chandigarh’s Sector-3 police had booked the three of them in the paper leak case on Sept 19,2017. Sunita was arrested from Delhi’s Najafgarh area on Nov 9 as “she had stopped cooperating” with the special investigating team. On Sept 15, 2017 High Court, had recommended the suspension of Sharma. His suspension order was passed by a full bench of the court after an internal HC probe revealed that he had exchanged 760 calls & SMSs with Sunita. The probe also revealed that Sunita & Sushila had copies of question paper for HCS (JB) preliminary examination 2017 even before the examination. It was found that Sunita had procured a copy of the question paper from Sharma & supplied it to Sushila.

Congress leader’s role
As far as alleged role of Sunil Chopra is concerned , Special Investigation Team (SIT) stated that Chopra is President of Radha Krisan Temple Guest house of sector 18.It was stated that main accused Sunita was staying in this guest house & Sunil Chopra made arrangements for her stay in that guest house. It was also alleged that Sunita told Sunil Chopra about the leaked paper & gave him the responsibility of finding eligible candidates & Special Investigation Team (SIT) stated that Sunil Chopra found the candidates & delivered them the leaked paper.

Ayushi’s Role
Hisar resident Ayushi Godara (23) was also arrested by Special Investigation Team (SIT) from jhajjar.Ayushi was stated to be room mate of main accused Sunita & she was also staying in same guest house. It was stated that Sunita told Ayushi about the leaked paper & it was on disclosure statement of sunita that Ayushi was arrested . She was on run since Feb 2018. It was also stated by police that main accused Sunita got her SIM issued on name & documents of Ayushi & used to talk to other on this SIM so that her role & location could not be traced .

Kuldeep’s Role
Kuldeep was one of the agents who roped in candidates to whom paper was provided.

Role of Ayushi’s father Subhash Godara & her maternal uncle Sushil Bhadu & Advocate Tejinder Bisnoi

Advocate Tejinder Bishnoi who had secured 2nd rank in the paper was also arrested by police who is stated to have made transaction of Rs 7 lakh to another accused Sushi Bhadu & in total however 25 lakh of transaction was made by him .It was also stated that during interrogation AYushi’s father Subhash Godara leaked paper to other persons & the police wanted to know the persons to whom the paper was leaked

How the entire case unfolded

The entire scam was unearthed after Suman, a resident of Pinjore in Panchkula district, had filed a petition in the HC seeking registration of a criminal case into leakage of the question paper for the examination of prestigious services. She had produced an audio recording of some candidates claiming most of the seats for the selection of candidates had already been sold for Rs 1.5 crore & the selection of the candidates had already been finalised. She had specifically named two woman candidates, Sunita & Sushila, claiming they were involved in the scam. Later, the court had found both Sunita (general category) & Sushila (reserved category) had topped the examination with exceptionally high marks in their respective categories. The HCs internal probe had also found Balwinder was responsible for leak of the examination paper to Sunita.

Timeline_
September 19,2017_HC ordered registration of FIR .
November 9, 2017_SIT arrested Mastermind Sunita
December 29, 2017_SIT arrested Balwinder Sharma
January5, 2018_SIT submitted chargesheet against accused
November 13,2018_supplemetary chargesheet filed
January 31,2020_charges framed against 9 accused.
The court of additional sessions judge Gagan Geet Kaur framed charges against the nine accused.

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