PESHAWAR, Oct 2: One of the accused in the entry-test paper case has told the police investigation team that he had also stolen and sold a paper last year, sources said on Sunday.

The sources said that the police had also added charges against the accused in paper leak scandal. They were earlier charged under sections 417, 418, 419 and 420 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the police had included new section 109 and 406 of the PPC, 380/14 Islamic Law and Official Secret Act, 1923 in the FIR.

The sources said that Mobeen Samad, former driver in the Education Testing and Evaluation Authority (ETEA), told the six-member investigation committee of the Central Police Office that he had stolen the entry-test paper in 2004 and sold its copies to Yasir, a teacher in private college and Ziauddin alias Kala Khan, a shopkeeper in the Gulbahar Colony. Samad, was at that time a driver with the former ETEA executive director, Waheed, who was his wife’s close relative, the sources said.

One of the English-language daily newspapers had reported the entry-test paper leak last year, but an enquiry could not be initiated as former NWFP governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had called Provincial Education Minister Maulana Fazle Ali to explain the allegation. The minister had denied the report, the sources said, adding that soon after the news report Mr Waheed resigned and left for England.

Ziauddin also confessed the crime and seconded the statement of Mobeen Samad. He told the police that he had a good business but suffered losses over the years and finally decided to make some quick bucks, which lured him into committing the crime, he said.

The CPO investigation team, while grilling the accused, found that the entry-test papers were leaked ever since the establishment of ETEA six years ago.

The sources said that in the past five years the papers were leaked out to the children of upper-class, usually a day before the test. However, this year the paper was not only leaked out to students, but traded by some people who had no direct links with the medical colleges in the NWFP, they claimed.

In a related development, the CPO team had extended the scope of the investigation to other cities.

The police were in search of Saad, who purchased the paper from one of the accused and manager of a popular manufacturing company of lamps in the city.

They are also looking for Liaquat, who had got a contract from the ETEA for providing tents and other facilities at the Karnal Sher Khan Stadium to students who appeared in the test this year.

The sources said that all of them had gone into hiding following the arrest of eight people.

The sources said that the CPO investigation team had recently visited the ETEA office and inspected the secrecy room — meant for printing and stapling the 16-page entry-test paper.

The team expressed its anguish over the handling of the entry-test paper and termed the process insecure for preparing important secret documents.

Meanwhile, the NWFP Chief Minister’s special investigation team had on Saturday submitted its report, the sources said.