Karnataka PU paper racket kingpin refuses to leak answers

BENGALURU: Shivakumaraiah, the alleged kingpin and the prime accused in the II PU question paper leak, is proving to be a tough nut to crack. Even 24 hours after his arrest, the prime accused has refused to give any names to the CID officials, who arrested him on Monday night.

Shivakumaraiah was questioned by the CID officials till early Wednesday morning at an undisclosed location, but the seasoned criminal remained tight-lipped giving a hard time to the police.

“Shivakumaraiah denied any involvement in the present question paper leak case and said that he was out of the paper leak business since 2013.  But he hinted that his nephew Kiran alias Kumar Swamy could be behind the paper leak and said Kiran has been carrying out the business for the last couple of years,” a CID source said.  

But officials suspect that he is only trying to divert the attention. “This is not the first time he has used such tactics. He is only trying to kill time as we have got him in custody for 10 days. We are probing the case from all angles and trying to trace his son Dinesh and Kiran, who are still on the run,” they said.

Except for Kiran, Shivakumaraiah has refused to give any names involved in the paper leak business, which has been running for several years. Investigations so far have revealed that Shivakumaraiah has links with the junior level staff in the PU Department who are assigned to safeguard the treasuries from where the question papers were leaked. But going by his network and the list of contacts, the police are not ruling out the involvement of higher officials in the PU Department head office.

Shivakumaraiah's mobile phone call detail records contained many numbers which belonged to government officials of various departments, including the police. However their role can be ascertained only after corroborating the information given by him, CID sources said.

Shivakumaraiah told the police that he was only a recipient of the leaked question papers and that Kiran was running the question paper leak business independently for the last few years.

He told his interrogators that two people from the PU Board were involved in leaking the question papers. While one is in a first grade post, the other is a Group D employee, who moved around in an Innova car. But the CID officials refused to confirm it.  

During questioning, the blood sugar levels of Shivakumaraiah, who is a diabetic, shot up. “We are being cautious and not adopting an aggressive approach. We don’t want any medical emergencies hampering our investigations," they said.