The Rajasthan police’s Special Operations Group arrested Ramu Ram Raika, a former member of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC), on Sunday. Raika, who had previously been suspended, is accused of providing a leaked question paper from the 2021 sub-inspector recruitment exam to his two children.
Raika, who served as an RPSC member from 2018 to 2022, has been placed in police custody until September 7, according to The Times of India (TOI).
Family Members and Additional Arrests
Alongside Raika, the police also detained his children, Devesh and Shobha, along with three other trainee sub-inspectors: Manju Devi, Avinash Palsania, and Vijendra Kumar. The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation into the leak, which first came to light in March.
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Details of the Leak Investigation
The scandal surrounding the 2021 sub-inspector and platoon commander recruitment exam led to a broader police operation, resulting in the arrest of approximately 38 individuals. The investigation revealed that Raika’s children had achieved high marks in the examination, raising suspicions about the fairness of their results.
Performance Discrepancies Highlighted
Following the discovery of the leak, the Rajasthan Police Academy conducted a re-test for the entire 2021 batch. The results were notably poor, with candidates failing to answer even basic general knowledge questions.
An official commented to TOI, “Unlike the RPSC-conducted SI exam, we did not include negative markings. Yet, they all performed poorly.”
Manju Devi, who had originally secured the 11th rank, could only answer 52 questions correctly in Hindi and 71 in general knowledge during the re-test. This was a significant drop from her previous scores of 183.75 in Hindi and 167.89 in general knowledge. Similarly, Vijendra Kumar’s re-test performance was considerably lower than his initial scores of 168.28 in Hindi and 157.59 in general knowledge.
Raika’s Children’s Exam Results
The police investigation also uncovered discrepancies in the exam results of Raika’s children. Shobha, who initially ranked fifth, had scored 188.68 and 154.84 out of 200 in Hindi and general knowledge, respectively. However, during the re-test, she could only answer 24 questions correctly in Hindi and 34 in general knowledge. Her brother, who was initially ranked 40th, managed only 28 marks out of 50 during the interview phase of the re-test.