THANE, June 28 -- Three people were arrested in Bhiwandi, in Thane district, in connection with the TET-2026 paper leak, on Saturday. The accused, two from Bihar and one from Haryana, were arrested from Kongaon village, a rapidly developing area around 5km from Bhiwandi city. Thane police recovered four sets of the TET-2026 question paper from the accused. They said education department officials have confirmed they were copies of the actual question paper meant for the exam. The arrested accused are Akash Kumar, 30, and Rajiv Shah, 45, both residents of Patna in Bihar, and Dhiraj Kumar, 28, from Panipat in Haryana. They told police they were expecting to fetch Rs.1.5 crore by selling the question paper to candidates. The leak surfaced after teams from the Thane police raided premises in Kongaon at 11:00am on Saturday, on a tip-off that the accused had arrived there from Delhi on Friday. Dr Pawan Bansod, deputy commissioner of police, said multiple police teams from Bhiwandi tracked the three individuals and recovered the question paper from them. The have been booked under various sections of the BNS, including cheating, forgery and fabrication of documents used for fraudulent purposes, and criminal conspiracy. The accused have also been booked under the Maharashtra Competitive Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 and the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University, Board and other specified Examinations Act, 1982. While Ashok Kumar and Rajiv Shah were involved in land deals in and around Patna, Dhiraj Kumar had a failed the competitive exam for the recruitment of teaching staff at Kendriya Vidyalayas, Bansod told HT. "We are still investigating how they reached Bhiwandi, where they stayed, and who their local contact was," he said. Thane police have set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case. The SIT, to be headed by Bansod, will include two assistant commissioners of police from Bhiwandi, nine inspector-cadre officers and 20 other personnel. Ashok Dudhe, additional commissioner of police, Thane Police, told HT, "Teams have been dispatched to various locations across the country to investigate the matter."...