3 weeks ago
Solapur coaching institute operator arrested in TET paper leak case
There is a special test in India called the TET that people must pass to become teachers in government schools.
Some people are accused of stealing the test questions before the exam and selling them.
The police have been investigating this and have arrested 16 people so far.
One of the latest arrests is a man named Prakash Pawar, who ran an academy in Solapur that helped students prepare for government job exams.
Police found original school documents that belong to 26 students from Maharashtra in a faraway place called Samastipur in Bihar.
Police think Pawar may have kept the students' documents as a guarantee until they paid for the leaked test paper.
Some students told police they had studied at Pawar's academy.
Pawar's lawyer says he is a dedicated educator who helped poor students study for free and that he is innocent.
The police are still checking phones, documents and money records to find out how the leak worked, and the TET exam was postponed because of the leak.
Bhiwandi Police arrested Solapur-based coaching institute operator Prakash Pawar, the first arrest from Maharashtra in the TET paper leak case.
Pawar was produced before a court on Tuesday and remanded to police custody till August 15; total arrests in the case now number 16.
Police recovered original educational documents of 26 Maharashtra students from Samastipur, Bihar, allegedly pledged by Pawar as security for the leaked paper.
The leak came to light on June 27 when police seized TET question paper sets, and the TET 2026 examination was subsequently postponed by the state government.
Alleged mastermind Bijendra Kumar Gupta and associate Inderjit Singh were arrested in Bihar on July 25, and 15 other accused are in judicial custody till August 17.
- Who
- Prakash Pawar, a Solapur-based coaching institute operator, along with alleged mastermind Bijendra Kumar Gupta and his associate Inderjit Singh (Piku), both arrested earlier in Bihar.
- What
- The arrest of Pawar in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) paper leak investigation, and the recovery of original educational documents belonging to 26 Maharashtra students.
- Where
- Solapur, Maharashtra, where Pawar runs his academy; Bhiwandi, where the police investigation is based; and Samastipur, Bihar, where the documents were recovered and the alleged mastermind was arrested.
- When
- Pawar was produced before a court on Tuesday and remanded to police custody till August 15; the leak was first detected on June 27.
- Why
- Police allege Pawar required candidates to provide their original documents as security, to be returned after payment for the leaked TET question paper, and are probing the full interstate leak network, alleged buyers and beneficiaries.
Police / SIT
Defence (Pawar's counsel)
Pawar's role in the leak
Police / SIT
Police allege Pawar pledged students' original documents as security against the leaked TET paper and is part of an interstate leak network.
Defence (Pawar's counsel)
The counsel says Pawar is a dedicated educator wrongly implicated, who spent years helping underprivileged students and has no connection to the leak.
Recovered papers
Police / SIT
Police say at least six of the 26 recovered paper sets are directly linked to TET examinations and are probing whether leaked papers were distributed before the test.
Defence (Pawar's counsel)
The counsel says the 26 papers held by an accused relate to police recruitment (20) and TET exams that took place several years ago (5-6), not the current leak.
Dhruv Academy's fee model
Police / SIT
Police are examining whether the 'pay after passing' arrangement was used to collect and channel illicit funds derived from paper-leak operations.
Defence (Pawar's counsel)
Admission was free; candidates paid nominal fees only after clearing exams and getting jobs, with more than 500 of about 1,000 trainees passing.
Key facts
- Total arrests
- 16 accused, including alleged mastermind Bijendra Kumar Gupta
- Pawar's remand
- Police custody till August 15
- Recovered material
- Original educational documents of 26 Maharashtra students, recovered in Samastipur, Bihar; police also reported 26 examination-related paper sets
- Leak detected
- June 27, when Bhiwandi Police seized TET question paper sets
- TET 2026 examination
- Scheduled for June 28 across 1,028 centres; postponed by the state government
- Pawar's academy
- Dhruv Academy (Dhruv Pratishthan) in Solapur, operated from 2012 to 2020
- Main accused arrested in Bihar
- Bijendra Kumar Gupta and Inderjit Singh (Piku), arrested on July 25 in Samastipur
- Judicial custody
- 15 accused remanded in judicial custody till August 17
Quotes
Senior Bhiwandi police official
Police officer overseeing the TET paper leak investigation
“He was arrested on the ground that one of the accused, currently in judicial custody, had received 26 papers, of which 20 are in respect of police recruitment for students of Dhruv Academy (run by Pawar) and 5 to 6 are of TET students of exams which took place several years ago.”
theprint.in
“The investigation so far has indicated that the certificates recovered from the accused were allegedly pledged by Pawar against the leaked TET paper.”
freepressjournal.in
Sources
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