From railway employee to MLA, paper-leak cases have haunted UP's Bedi Ram for long

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh lawmaker Bedi Ram, whose name has cropped up in connection with the NEET paper-leak case, had been a railway employee and was dismissed from service after being arrested in a paper leak case in 2006.

Ram has a long history of involvement in several alleged instances of paper leak over the years. He had been arrested in 2008 along with his associates for his alleged role in leaking the question paper of the Loco Pilot exam conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB).

Ram was arrested again a year later in connection with the Assistant Station Master examination paper leak case. He was again arrested in 2014 by the UP STF in connection with his alleged involvement in the Loco Pilot examination conducted by the RRB.

Ram, who was an MLA from the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an alliance partner of the BJP in UP, had mentioned that eight cases pertaining to paper leak were pending against him in his affidavit submitted with his nomination papers for the assembly poll in 2022.

The name of Ram, who hailed from Jaunpur district of UP, had also cropped up in cases of leak of paper in Madhya Pradesh. Cases against him were lodged in Rajasthan, UP and Madhya Pradesh as well, sources said.

In the viral video Bedi was purportedly heard saying that many people had secured jobs through him after paying money. He was also heard discussing payment of money for providing government jobs with another person.

According to the sources, Ram has amassed huge wealth over the years and has several houses, plots and flats in Lucknow and Jaunpur.

It was not clear how Ram, who had been termed as the ‘kingpin’ of the paper leak gang, made it to politics and managed to get a ticket from the SBSP. Though the SBSP leaders said that they did not know if Ram was involved in paper leak cases, party chief and UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar’s video in which he was heard purportedly saying that Ram could get jobs for any one raises question marks on their claims.

Sources here said that the police were on the lookout for Ram, who had gone underground since the videos went viral.