ED raids at Rajasthan Congress chief's residence in connection with paper leak case

ED raids Rajasthan Cong. Pres. Govind Singh Dotasara's residence in Jaipur in connection with Senior Teacher 2nd Grade Competitive Examination, 2022 Paper Leak case. ED searches 13 locations in Rajasthan, seizes cash, documents & electronic devices. Babulal Katara & Anil Kumar Meena arrested, properties worth Rs 3.11 cr attached.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday, October 26, 2023, conducted raids at the residence of Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara in connection with the Senior Teacher 2nd Grade Competitive Examination, 2022 Paper Leak case.

The raids were carried out at the official residence of Dotasara at Civil Lines in Rajasthan's Jaipur. The raids that comes even as the state is gearing up to go to the polls on November 25, has taken a political tone with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot calling an urgent news conference to address the issue later today.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate is also conducting search operations at nearly a dozen locations in Rajasthan in connection with the paper leak caseEarlier this month, the ED conducted search operations at seven residential premises of Dinesh Khodania, Ashok Kumar Jain, Spurdha Chaudhary, Suresh Dhaka and other individuals in the paper leaks case. The searches were carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Friday, officials said adding that various incriminating documents, copies of sale deeds of various properties, electronic devices and cash amounting to ₹24 lakh were seized in the operation.

"ED has carried out search operations under PMLA, 2002 on 13.10.2023 at 07 residential premises of Dinesh Khodania, Ashok Kumar Jain, Spurdha Chaudhary, Suresh Dhaka and others in Senior Teacher 2nd Grade Competitive Examination, 2022 Paper Leak case. During the search operations, various incriminating documents, copies of sale deeds of various properties, electronic devices and INR 24 Lakh were recovered and seized," the ED said in a post on 'X'.T

he ED in September arrested Babulal Katara, a member of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission and Anil Kumar Meena in the alleged paper leak case in Rajasthan under the provisions of PMLA. Katara and Meena were produced before a special PMLA court in Jaipur, which granted ED custody for a period of three days.

The ED had claimed that the investigation revealed that Katara leaked the general knowledge question paper of the Senior Teacher Grade II Competitive Examination, 2022 which was to be conducted on December 21, December 22 and December 24, 2022, at various places in Rajasthan.

The enforcement agency alleged that Katara sold the leaked question papers to Anil Kumar Meena. Further, Meena supplied the said leaked papers to Bhupendra Saran, Suresh Dhaka, and other members of a syndicate, which was further provided to candidates for the consideration amount of ₹8 to ₹10 lakh per candidate. In early June this year, ED conducted searches at 15 premises of accused persons, resulting in the recovery of incriminating documents and digital records.