Telangana CID, probing the leak of medical EAMCET-II question paper, today arrested a 52-year-old "broker" for allegedly collecting Rs 1.73 crore from parents of 14 students, taking total number of persons in custody to three.
Shaik Ramesh alias Raheem, hailing from Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, was arrested at Boduppal on the city outskirts this afternoon.
"This broker procured 14 students from various places in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and took them to Pune camp, where they were given practice with leaked question paper", the agency said.
Of the Rs 1.73 crore, he paid Rs 1.2 crore to another broker who took the students to the Pune camp. CID said Rs 15 lakh was deposited in bank account of his friend.
An amount of Rs 37.5 lakh was seized from Ramesh's possession, CID said, adding efforts are on to apprehend other brokers and kingpins behind the leak.
CID yesterday arrested two persons and found that two sets of the paper were leaked prior to the examination conducted earlier this month.
The agency has also identified some suspected middlemen during the investigation.
"In the investigation conducted so far, some brokers and sub-brokers belonging to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Bengaluru and other places have been identified," CID had said yesterday.
The duo, identified as Vishnudhar alias Vishnuvardhan and Thirumal alias Thirumal Rao, were arrested from Hyderabad.
"Vishnuvardhan and Rao allegedly contacted students, parents and took about 25 of them to Bengaluru where one Rajagopal Reddy arranged practice of questions and answers to them (before appearing for the exams)," CID had said.
The Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAMCET-II) was conducted on July 9 and the results were declared on July 14. The examination was conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad.
