Inspector General (Special), Neeraj Nayan Pandey, said the CID had been tracing Patra’s movements since he went absconding. “He had been constantly changing locations to evade arrest. On Wednesday, we came to know that he was on a bus travelling on the Midnapore-Howrah route. I cannot say more at this point as the investigation is in its preliminary stage,” Pandey said.

The CID has already arrested Arun Chowdhury, an advocate and Patra’s brother-in-law, and clerk Mihir Dandapat from Kharagpur on Saturday for selling the question papers for Rs 2.5 lakh per set.

Patra, a resident of Konnagar, Hooghly was working in the confidential cell of the high security state government-run Saraswati Press, which has been publishing question papers for government examinations. The CID sources said that this wasn’t the first time question papers were leaked from the press. “We have reasons to believe this racket has been going on since four to five years,” they said.

Following the discovery of the racket, the question papers were sent to the JEE Board, which confirmed that they were copies of the original.