The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday busted a Bihar-based gang that was leaking question papers of entrance tests for various government jobs across the country.

Terming it a multi-crore scam, VB sleuths have nabbed a local Congress leader from Bihar's Arwal district, the main kingpin of recruitment paper leakage in various states, including Delhi, Punjab and Telengana.

The accused, Kuresh Kumar Diwedi (40) was produced by police in a local court at Mohali on Tuesday.

Sources said, he had helped around 25 candidates to cram the leaked question paper. He had brought together 17 prospective candidates for the 100 posts of sub-divisional engineer (SDE) in the Punjab irrigation department.

He allegedly took original documents of the candidates on the cost of paying Rs.25 lakh after their selections.

The examination was conducted by the Thapar University, Patiala on October 16, 2016. "We have investigated the accused. He is one of the major kingpins of the recruitment paper leaks held in other states like Delhi, Haryana, Telengana etc. There are other conduits in the list who are on the run. We are in the process to nab them also," Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG), VB, Surjeet Singh told The Statesman.

A day before the exam, Kuresh Diwedi, had allegedly called 17 appearing candidates at his brother Jai Diwedi's house in New Delhi to leak the question paper.

Later, the vigilance department on the basis of inputs of paper leak, informed the Punjab government about the paper leak.

Following this, the exam was scrapped and future of hundreds of candidates hanging in balance since then. In yet another similar case, the police has also arrested another conduit, Mushtaq Ahmed (40), who is accused in the leakage of recruitment exams conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Food Corporation of India (FCI), Delhi police Sub-Inspectors recruitment exam and assistant commandant exams in paramilitary forces.

Sources further said that nearly 70 persons, including about 60 candidates and some conduits from Bihar, Haryana and UP have been arrested in other similar recruitment scams by VB. Two local-level politicians of Punjab are also in the net for collusion involving leakage of test papers and organising special classes for the beneficiary candidates.

VB sources said that the accused charged anything between Rs.10 and Rs.25 lakh per candidate for the question paper. They allegedly run a batch of 25 candidates only eyeing to earn Rs.2 crore at least.