Candidates who agreed to buy leaked Maharashtra Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) papers for as much as Rs 1 lakh were made to hand over their original marksheets and other educational documents as security, with the documents to be returned only after they paid for the papers following the examination, the nearly 3,500-page chargesheet filed by the Thane City police has revealed.

The students, in turn, would agree to pay for these papers only after taking the exam, when they would know whether they had been given the same paper. The papers were sold at different rates ranging from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

While defining the roles of the 18 accused persons, 16 of whom have been arrested, the chargesheet said, “Prakash Pawar, the arrested accused, met wanted accused Ashokkumar Sao in Delhi and handed over original educational documents of 26 students. These documents were later seized during the memorandum panchnama made from the residence of another accused.”

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Explaining this, an officer in charge of the probe said the arrangement was that candidates, and through them agents, would pay those providing the leaked question papers only after taking the exam, to ensure they had been given the same paper.

“This also left a loophole that the student or the agents would later not pay despite giving the same paper. To avoid this scenario, the arrangement was that the accused agents would collect marksheets and other original documents from the students and hand them over to those selling the paper. After the exam, the payment would be made and the documents returned,” the officer added.

Lawyer Shailesh Gaikwad, representing the accused, said there was no strong evidence against his clients, which would be proved during the trial.

The Thane City police on Thursday filed the chargesheet against 18 accused in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) paper leak case, which took place two days before the June 28 exams, before they were postponed.

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The crux of the evidence is the original question paper the accused had sneaked out from Agra’s Mahim Patran printing press by hiding it in their shoes.

The chargesheet identified one accused, Bijendra Gupta, a former coaching-class teacher who had similar cases against him in the past, as the mastermind.