Hyderabad, March 21,2023:  Tension prevailed at Pragati Bhavan, the official residence of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao here on Tuesday as ABVP markers tried to lay siege to the complex to protest over Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak.

Carrying ABVP flags and raising slogans, the protesters including women tried to move closer to the complex but were stopped by police.

There was heated argument between ABVP leaders and police personnel. As the ABVP workers continued their protest, police arrested them and shifted them to Goshamahal police station.

ABVP had last week staged a protest at TSPSC office which had turned violent. The protesters had barged into office premises and damaged the board.

Police then arrested some ABVP men who were later remanded to judicial custody.

Police had stepped up security around Pragati Bhavan in view of the planned protest by ABVP. However, some protesters took police by surprise and managed to reach near the high security premises.

The ABVP leaders demanded resignation of Information Technology minister K. T. Rama Rao over paper leak. They also demanded judicial probe into the case.

Hyderabad police last week arrested nine persons, including two employees of TSPSC, in connection with the paper leak case.

The TSPSC had conducted the examination on March 5 for 833 vacancies of Assistant Engineer, Municipal Assistant Engineer, Technical Officer, and Junior Technical Officer in various engineering departments. A total of 55,000 candidates had written the exam.

However, the Commission suspected leakage of the question paper and lodged a complaint with the police.

Following the arrest of the accused the Commission cancelled the exam and also postponed other exams scheduled to be held later this month.

Amid doubts that the accused may have leaked question papers of some other exams, the Commission on Friday decided to cancel three other exams including Group I Prelims.

Nearly 2.86 lakh aspirants of Group I posts had appeared in Group-I exam conducted on October 16, 2022.