Date:14/04/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/04/14/stories/2004041413780300.htm

New Delhi

Don's former aide behind paper leak?

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 13. Investigations into the All-India Pre-Medical Test paper leak case have indicated involvement of one of the former partners of Ranjit Singh Don, who was arrested last year by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly leaking the Common Admission Test (CAT) papers for admission to the Indian Institute of Management.

It is learnt that the prime accused, Ranjit Verma, had been questioned by the CBI last year on suspicion of his links with Ranjit Don's former partner in crime, Rajiv Babu. Investigations revealed that Rajiv had studied with Ranjit Don in the same medical college. The duo used to run a racket in leaking papers of entrance examinations of prestigious institutions, but parted ways due to some differences.

When Ranjit Don was arrested, he apparently suspected that Babu had tipped off the CBI about him. Hence, during interrogation, he told the CBI that Babu was also involved in the racket, following which he was arrested in November last. He is currently lodged in Patna Jail. Babu, who belongs to Bokaro in Jharkhand, had been operating from Patna, Delhi and Kolkata.

When the racket in leaking of papers of the pre post-graduate entrance examinations for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was unearthed recently, the case was handed over to the Special Crime Branch of the CBI for further probe.

On suspicion of Babu's involvement, the Branch officials questioned him and while going through the mobile phone records of calls made and received by him, the officials came across Ranjit Verma's number. Subsequently, he was picked up for interrogation. In his statement, Ranjit claimed that he had nothing to do with the AIIMS paper-leak case. The CBI did not find any concrete evidence and hence let him off.

Based on these facts, the Crime Branch suspects that Ranjit and his brother, Satinder, had been operating in the Capital on Babu's behest. While searching his belongings at his Pandav Nagar residence in East Delhi, the police recovered a diary containing names and addresses of his contacts and clients. Some of the numbers have now been kept under observation to trace Ranjit.

Meanwhile, it has come to light that minutes before the police raided the New Ashok Nagar flat on Saturday, Ranjit, Satinder and Banny Gautam had left for Palam to collect the PMT zoology and botany papers. The house that the accused had rented belonged to a person known to Ranjit.

At the time of the raid, he had called up the Police Control Room (PCR) claiming that the Haryana police had entered his premises. He is learnt to have fled to his village at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. The police are planning to question him as well.