Principal Special Judge for Central Bureau of Investigation cases, Hyderabad, Madhusudhan Rao, on Friday, sentenced the then Chairman of Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai, Satendra Mohan Sharma, the then Chief Executive Officer of Hassan-Mangalore Rail Development Corporation A. K. Jagannadham and eight other accused to five years rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of ₹7,87,000 in a case pertaining to paper leak of exam conducted by Railway Recruitment Board for the posts of assistant station master and assistant loco pilot in 2010.
Mr. Sharma has to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of ₹1,75,000 while Mr. Jagannadham has to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of ₹1,31,000. Other convicted accused, appointed as agents to lure aspirants, including Jagannadham Shareen Kumar, Jagannadham Ramesh, Jagannadham Tirupathaiah and Vivek Bharadwaj, were sentenced to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of ₹50,000 each. P Ashok Kumar, Mandarama Seshu Narayana Murthy and Shrirama Vijay Shankar will undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of ₹75,000 each while Srujan Jagannadham has to undergo RI of 5 years with a fine of ₹56,000.
CBI had registered a case on June 15, 2010 against certain public servants and private persons on allegations of leakage of question paper before the examination for the posts of assistant loco pilot and assistant station master which was scheduled to be conducted by Railway Recruitment Board on June 6, 2010.
It was alleged that Mr. Sharma and Mr. Jagannadham were involved in a conspiracy with private people to leak out the said question papers through agents on payment of money in the range of ₹3.5-5 lakh. While the others lured several aspirants across the country and collected various amounts in the range of ₹5,000 - ₹1,50,000 and original qualification certificates from about 193 aspirants. Subsequently, the aspirants were taken to Goa, Sholapur and Nagpur where they were tutored with leaked question papers.
CBI had conducted searches at the official and residential premises of the accused which also led to the recovery of cash of about ₹36.9 lakh.
