After checking call records, the CID has revealed that personal assistant and officer on special duty to Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil, Obalaraju, is one of the key accused in the II Pre-University (PU) chemistry paper leaks, reported Bangalore Mirror.
On the days before the exam on 21 March and re-exam on 31 March, the minister’s PA revealed that he had made more than 100 calls to procure the leaked papers to sell them on to agents.
On 20 March, he had made 120 calls – one even from Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy’s residence – and 150 calls on 30 March. He had sent an SMS to former commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara, Palike Lakshminarayana.
However, the role of Reddy and Lakshminarayana in the leak remains to be verified.
According to Bangalore Mirror, the mobile tower locations of calls revealed that he got the papers at 9 pm on 20 March at the forest department guest house, Vanavikas in Malleswaram, opposite the PU Board office.
The newspaper said that Obalaraju had made his first call to his brother-in-law, Rudrappa, who is the other accused in the case. Both Obalaraju’s son and Rudrappa’s daughter were sitting for the II PU exam.
On both days, Obalaraju collected the leaked papers from the main accused, Shakumar’s relative Kiran, at Malleshwaram.
Investigations revealed that Obalaraju and Rudrappa moved in a fixed pattern from his residence in Srirampura to Vanavikasa, then to Ramana Maharshi, Malleswaram, Srirampura, again to Malleswaram and then Basaweshwaranagar and Ramana Maharshi Road.
They went to a location in Ramana Maharshi road where a PU science lecturer was preparing answers to the leaked chemistry paper.
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