By Rajesh Pandey
The Allahabad High Court has granted bail to an accused of UP police examination paper leak observing that nothing incriminating recovered from his possession.
While granting bail to one Monu Sharma alias Monu Pandit, Justice Sameer Jain observed that nothing incriminating was recovered from his possession and that the co-accused Monu Kumar and Rajneesh Ranjan, who were also apprehended along with the applicant have already been released on bail by the high court.
The applicant was held earlier this year for allegedly trying to manipulate a police constable examination and leaking the question papers.
Though in its order dated June 18, the court considered the applicant’s criminal history involving four other cases, it noted that he had been granted bail in all of them, all the alleged offences are triable by a Magistrate of the first class, and the applicant has been in jail since April 5, 2024, and thus, he was found entitled to be released on bail.
The applicant Monu Pandit was booked under Sections 420 (cheating) and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a case registered at police station – Nawabad of Jhansi district on the allegations of leaking the question paper of the written Uttar Pradesh constable recruitment and promotion examination (scheduled for 17th and 18th February 2024) even before the examination was conducted.
As per a newspaper report, the candidates who appeared for the exam alleged that the paper was available at a price between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh. It was also alleged that many of the candidates had obtained the paper 8-12 hours before the commencement of the examination.
In December 2023, the Uttar Pradesh Government announced 60,244 openings for police constable positions, the entry-level roles within the state police force.
Over 48 lakh aspirants filed the form to appear in the written test, which took place at over 2300 centres across 75 districts of the state. The examination drew significant attention due to the allegations of paper leaks and other irregularities. Consequently, the Uttar Pradesh government cancelled the examination in response to these allegations.