A Rajasthan Police team tracked down and arrested teacher recruitment examination paper leak’s alleged mastermind Sher Singh Meena – absconding for months now – from Odisha’s Kalahandi where he was hiding in the guise of a labourer working at a construction site, officials said on Friday.
Initially, the police team was confused as Meena was found shoddily dressed and was sporting a long beard as he worked at the under-construction building of a government school, but identified and arrested him on Thursday.
Anil Meena alias Sher Singh Meena, a resident of Dola’s Bas in Jaipur’s Chaumun, was working as Vice Principal in a government school in a village in Sirohi district, when he allegedly leaked the senior teacher recruitment exam paper, selling it to Bhupendra Saran for Rs 1 crore.
Saran and Suresh Dhaka sold the paper to other candidates for Rs 8-10 lakh. When the state police’s SOG caught Saran from Bengaluru, Meena apprehended that he would be next on the police list and went absconding. The SOG and Udaipur police were continuously searching for him.
However, they received clues about Meena’s whereabouts from his girlfriend as he was in constant touch with her.
Udaipur police had arrested Meena’s girlfriend Anita Meena from Jaipur on April 2, and it was from her the information that Meena was hiding in Odisha was obtained.
Officials said that Meena changed 7 cities to evade arrest. After fleeing his village after he came to know of Saran’s arrest, he came to Jaipur and from there, went to Delhi and finally to Odisha through Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The SOG team reached Odisha three days ago and came to know that Meena was living somewhere near Bhawanipatnam in Kalahandi. It was then found that he was working at the construction site of a government school in a village 40 kms away from Bhawanipatnam.
Meena was living in a kutcha house in the guise of a Rajasthani labourer.
The Rajasthan Police team left for Jaipur with Meena, where he would be interrogated to find out from where and with whose help he had leaked the senior teacher recruitment exam paper.
(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)
