The Enforcement Directorate has identified a company run by a couple and several other entities allegedly linked to the Odisha police sub-inspector recruitment examination paper-leak case, bringing businesses that were not detected in earlier investigations under scrutiny.
According to an ED officer quoted by the Times of India, the couple-run company took over operations of a Bhubaneswar-based private firm engaged by a central public sector undertaking to conduct the examination. The officer said the firm and other entities had remained outside the scope of previous investigations, including the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation probe.
The ED said searches conducted in Odisha and West Bengal on October 9, 10 and 12 indicated the possible involvement of individuals associated with the Odisha Police Recruitment Board, along with companies and entities connected to different stages of the examination process. The agency has not publicly established guilt against the companies or individuals identified in the report, and the investigation remains ongoing.
The latest findings widen the institutional focus of the case beyond the alleged leak itself. The examination was connected to the recruitment of police sub-inspectors, making the integrity of the process a matter of public administration as well as law enforcement. The ED’s account suggests that investigators are examining how examination operations were assigned, transferred and managed across private entities.
The agency officer said neither Berhampur police nor the Odisha Crime Branch, which had earlier investigated the case, detected the suspected role of the firms now under scrutiny. The ED’s searches are therefore examining links that were not identified during those earlier stages of the investigation, although the supplied report does not provide details of the specific companies, the individuals’ identities or the value of the alleged transactions.
The ED said the question paper leak was organised and that cash collected from candidates generated substantial proceeds of crime. The agency’s description points to an alleged cash-for-questions network involving candidates and intermediaries, but the report does not specify how many candidates were involved, how much money was collected or whether arrests have followed the latest searches.
The investigation now involves the ED, the CBI and state-level policing agencies, with the latest searches focused on financial and operational links across Odisha and West Bengal. Further action will depend on the evidence gathered from the companies, entities and individuals identified during the searches.
