Nagpur/Thane: Even as more revelations are coming out in the murky army paper leak case having been fabricated in Nagpur, the Thane police is likely to make more arrests from Nagpur as well as Pune.
During interrogation, Ravi Kumar, a clerk with the Nagpur army recruitment office, is believed to have told investigators that he was introduced to the main accused, Santosh Shinde, by a havaldar clerk, now posted in Pathankot in Punjab, during a recruitment drive in Bhandara in 2016. Shinde runs a coaching class in Phaltan in Satara.
A senior police officer neither confirmed nor denied the role of the havaldar clerk from Pathankot, but said there could be more army personnel linked with the scam. “In the initial stage of the probe, the accused had said that Dhaklu Patil, a jawan attached to Assam Rifles in Nagaland, was in touch with Shinde. Now, a havaldar clerk from Pathankot has been named. We are yet to verify this claim,” he told a newspaper.
Kumar, Dharamvir Singh and Nigam Kumar Pandey-clerks in the Nagpur army recruitment office-and Shinde are the masterminds of the exam paper leak during the recruitment of Class III personnel in the army, according to the Thane city police. The racket was a money-spinner for the cartel and their agents, 21 of whom were arrested last week by the Thane police, including lance naik with Pune Depot Batallion Mahendra Sonawane and BSF constable Ranjit Jadhav with 58 Batallion Tura, Shillong.
Meanwhile, two police teams have rushed to Nagpur and Pune and more arrests are likely. “Presently, searches are under way. We have got some substantial leads that could be crucial to the probe,” said a police officer.
