THANE, July 26 -- After month-long searches across several northern states, Bijender Gupta, the alleged mastermind behind the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test-2026 (TET-2026) paper leak, was finally arrested late on Friday. Gupta was arrested in Samastipur in Bihar and brought to Bhiwandi on Saturday. He was produced before a local court, which remanded him to police custody until July 30. An associate of Gupta, Indrajeet Vijay Singh, was arrested along with him. Saturday's arrests take the total number of individuals arrested in the case to 14, including Gupta's wife, Suman Gupta. Sonu Kumar, a printing press employee suspected of leaking the TET papers from the Agra printing press, is absconding. Gupta is the suspected mastermind behind the leak of at least 20 competitive and professional exams conducted in several states, according to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Thane police probing the TET-2026 case. He was arrested in some of these cases but released on bail, allowing him to resume his illegal activities. His wife Sonu has been arrested for allegedly providing financial assistance and transferring funds to other accused. Police said Gupta was on the move since the TET paper leak surfaced on June 27. The SIT had kept his friends, relatives and close associates under surveillance. When they learnt that Indrajeet Singh was a close associate of Gupta and that they knew each other for years in Delhi, investigators monitored Singh's digital footprint, suspecting he was harbouring Gupta in Samastipur. Using digital tools, they traced Singh on Friday, raided the location and found Gupta there. Pawan Bansod, DCP (Zone II), told HT, "Gupta had a long-standing relationship with Mahim Patran Ltd, the printing press in Agra used by several states to print exam question papers. He had kept employees at the press on his payroll." He said Gupta used a simple and effective modus operandi. Three arrested employees from the press - Nareshkumar Mahore, 35, Sanjaykumar Chandra, 44, and Babulal Kushwaha, 45 - would provide Gupta regular updates on question papers being printed at the press and, depending on the importance of the examination, Gupta would instruct them to steal copies of the question papers from the press. Bansod said the investigation into the racket is ongoing, and they hope Gupta will provide details the identity of other people involved. Police are also probing the printing press itself as they believe a press entrusted with printing sensitive recruitment examination papers should not be riddled with security lapses. The TET-2026 paper leak surfaced on June 27, when the Bhiwandi police, acting on confidential intelligence, raided a location in Kongaon village, 5km from Bhiwandi city, and seized copies of leaked question papers of the exam. The accused - Akash Kumar, 30, Rajiv Shah, 45, and Dhiraj Kumar 28 - were involved in negotiating with potential buyers of the leaked papers. Subsequent verification with the MSCE confirmed that the seized papers matched the actual question paper drafted for the TET exam scheduled for June 28 across 1,028 examination centres. The state government subsequently postponed the exam, to be taken by more than 600,000 candidates....