She allegedly used a fake name and lived at a paying guest facility using fake documents. She even cut herself off from her contacts and stopped using a mobile phone to avoid being traced.
However, on Monday morning, after a three-month-long operation codenamed ‘Doctor Fixit’, a team from the Rajasthan Police’s Jodhpur Range was able to arrest Varsha Bishnoi, one of the key accused in the 2021 Rajasthan sub-inspector recruitment exam paper leak case. The operation involved analysis of technical intelligence as well as investigators disguising themselves as students and tracking her down in Kota, police said.
Bishnoi was a government school teacher and had been posted in Jodhpur when she allegedly got involved with recruitment exam irregularities. She is accused of writing recruitment exams on behalf of several people as a dummy candidate.
According to police, during the 2021 SI recruitment in Rajasthan, dismissed SI Jagdish Sihag had got Bishnoi to sit for the exam as a dummy candidate in place of his sisters, Indubala and Bhagwati.
Police allege that Bishnoi took Rs 15 lakh each to give the exam on behalf of the two sisters. To avoid getting caught, she also put her photograph on the admit cards issued to the sisters, police said.
Inspector General of Police Vikas Kumar said, “She is a close relative of Jagdish Jani, the main mastermind of the paper leak scam. She was living as a paying guest in the house of a retired bank manager in Jawahar Nagar area of Kota city under the fake name of Vimala, a student, and used fake documents. To avoid being tracked down by the police, Varsha had broken all her contacts and did not use a mobile phone.”
With Bishnoi absconding, the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police that is probing the paper leak case even put a reward of Rs 25,000 on information leading to her arrest.
According to IG Vikas Kumar, three months ago, a team from the Jodhpur Range launched Operation Doctor Fixit to apprehend her.
The police said in a release: “Doctor Fixit is a product that is used to stop rainwater from leaking. The accused’s name is Varsha (which means rain) and she was part of the paper leak scam. So this operation is called Doctor Fixit.”
Police said that based on collection and analysis of human and technical intelligence, the investigators got information that Bishnoi was hiding in Kota along with some other accused. For several days, the team disguised themselves as students and searched in dhabas, crossings, paan shops, coaching institutes, hostels, and so on.
Finally, with the help of Kota SP Amrita Duhan and Kunhadi police station SHO Arvind Bhardwaj, the police team reached the suspect’s location.
According to officers, when she was confronted by the police initially, Bishnoi allegedly showed them a fake Aadhaar card under the name of Vimala, but the truth came out on further interrogation. She was arrested and handed over to the SOG on Monday evening.
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