Mumbai/Nagpur: As Nagpur remains at the centre of murky Army paper leak case, the Thane police has managed to get custody of the three clerks from the Nagpur’s army recruitment office. These three are the prime accused in the army recruitment exam paper leak, even as over 15 army exam coaching institutes in the state are under the scanner of investigating agencies.

The Thane police had detected the racket and arrested over 18 suspects on Sunday.

Investigators said that the prime accused, Santosh Shinde, collaborated with clerk Ravi Kumar, while the latter’s colleagues Dharamvir Singh and Nigam Kumar Pandey helped leak the question papers. “We will interrogate the three clerks to find out if any other army officials were involved in the racket,” said a police officer. Shinde was in contact with several army exam institutes and planned to sell the leaked questions papers to as many candidates as possible to make money, he added.

The scamsters had also roped in several agents to sell the exam papers for as high as Rs 1 lakh, said the officer. He added that 48 of the 50 students of a Phaltan-based institute had cleared the army recruitment exam in March 2016 with the help of Shinde and the three clerks. “Last year, Shinde had paid Kumar Rs 50 lakh and this year, the deal was fixed at Rs 1.35 crore, which was to be paid by the 350 aspirants detained with the leaked papers,” said the officer.

Meanwhile, DCP (crime) Parag Manere said that they have not got an official confirmation on handing over the investigation to the CBI.