Army exam scam: Cops examining mobile calls

Thane crime branch officials are now going through the call data records (CDR) of the 21 accused in the army entrance exam scam, in which questions papers for the technical, tradecraft, clerical and general positions were leaked across Maharastra and Goa.

Parag Manere, deputy commissioner of police of the Thane crime branch told Free Press Journal, “We have seized the mobile phones of the accused. We are going through the CDRs to probe their links with other accomplices involved in the scandal. We are suspecting that the racket extends to other states, including Delhi.”

“We are in the process of recording the statements of the accused. We shall also be interrogating the 350 aspirants who were detained and later released on Sunday,” said an official connected with the probe.

The police have identified Santosh Shinde and Dhanaji Jadhav as the prime accused in the case. They ran the Raje Chhatrapati Academy at Phaltan in Satara and had links with Lance Naik Shitole and Sonawane. Kiran Ashok Gamne and Sandeep Baban Nagare, two other accused, were directors of the Career Academy at Nashik.

The accused were produced before the Thane Magistrate’s court on Monday and remanded to police custody till March 4.

On Saturday, the Thane police had arrested 18 people, two having links with the army. They were nabbed during raids conducted at Pune, Nagpur and Goa. The exams were cancelled in Nagpur, Kamptee, Ahmednagar, Ahmedabad, Goa and Kirkee in Pune on Sunday.