The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached five immovable properties valued at Rs 2.01 crore in connection with its money laundering investigation into the Bihar Police Constable Recruitment Examination 2023 paper leak case. The action was taken by the Patna Zonal Office of the Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. The agency issued a press release on this development on 30 October 2026.
The attachment is linked to an alleged conspiracy involving the printing of examination papers, the movement of funds received under a government contract, and the subsequent concealment of those funds.
The central individual named in the Enforcement Directorate’s account is Kaushik Kumar Kar. The agency has identified him as the beneficial owner of Blessings Secured Press Private Limited. According to the Enforcement Directorate, Kar also controlled another company named NC Print Private Limited, in whose name the five attached properties are held.
The case originates from the Bihar Police Constable Recruitment Examination 2023. The Central Selection Board of Constable had advertised 21,391 vacancies for the post of constable. More than 18 lakh candidates were eligible to appear. The written examination was scheduled across 37 districts at 529 centres and was planned for 1, 7 and 15 October 2023. The examination held on 1 October 2023 was cancelled after allegations of question paper leakage and widespread irregularities emerged. The cancellation caused financial loss to the Bihar government and created difficulties for the large number of candidates who had prepared for the test. A re-examination was later conducted in August 2024 and results were declared in November 2024.
The Economic Offences Unit of the Bihar Police registered a first information report on 31 October 2023. The case was numbered 16 of 2023 at the Economic Offences Unit police station in Patna. The FIR invoked sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery, along with a provision of the Information Technology Act relating to computer-related offences. The Enforcement Directorate’s investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is based on this FIR.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, the printing contract for the examination papers was awarded to a company called Caltex Multiventures Private Limited. This company was incorporated in 2021. The agency has stated that Caltex Multiventures had no prior experience in printing and did not possess its own printing press. Its directors were associates of Kaushik Kumar Kar who, the Enforcement Directorate alleges, acted as dummy directors. Caltex Multiventures received an advance payment of Rs 5.9 crore for the printing work.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that the actual printing was carried out by Blessings Secured Press Private Limited. This company, the agency says, is beneficially owned by Kaushik Kumar Kar. Blessings Secured Press had earlier been blacklisted in connection with examination paper leak cases. The Enforcement Directorate’s position is that the involvement of the blacklisted company was concealed and that Caltex Multiventures was used as a proxy to secure the government contract. The agency has further stated that the outsourcing of the printing work to Blessings Secured Press was in violation of the terms of the contract.
Caltex Multiventures transferred only a portion of the Rs 5.9 crore advance to Blessings Secured Press. The Enforcement Directorate has identified Rs 2.01 crore as the amount that was diverted. According to the agency, this sum was moved through a network of Kolkata-based shell entities that lacked genuine business operations. The funds were transferred under what the Enforcement Directorate describes as bogus transactions. Eventually the money was converted into cash. At that stage the identifiable trail of the funds ended. The agency has stated that it could not trace the proceeds of crime any further.
Because the further movement of the Rs 2.01 crore could not be established, the Enforcement Directorate provisionally attached five immovable properties of equivalent value. These properties are held in the name of NC Print Private Limited, another company that the agency says is controlled and beneficially owned by Kaushik Kumar Kar. The Enforcement Directorate has described the attachment as one of value-equivalent properties. The press release does not state that the five properties were purchased directly with the diverted funds from the examination contract.
Provisional attachment under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is a temporary measure. It freezes the properties so that they cannot be transferred or disposed of while the investigation and related legal proceedings continue. The attachment is not a final order of confiscation. The matter is subject to further adjudication under the Act. The Enforcement Directorate’s press release confirms that investigation into the identification of additional proceeds of crime and the role of other persons and entities is continuing.
Earlier, on 19 June 2025, the Enforcement Directorate had conducted searches at 11 locations spread across five cities. The places searched included locations in Patna and Nalanda in Bihar, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata in West Bengal. During these searches the agency seized documents and digital devices. The material recovered included handwritten lists of candidates, OMR numbers, fake degree certificates, documents relating to candidates, blank cheques and handwritten questions. The Enforcement Directorate issued a press release on 20 June 2025 confirming the searches and the seizures.
The question papers printed for the examination were transported from Kolkata to Patna. The Enforcement Directorate has stated that the papers were leaked while in transit, allegedly in connivance with other accused persons. Earlier reporting of the Economic Offences Unit investigation indicated that the papers were supposed to be transported under prescribed security arrangements. Instead, they were sent to a warehouse in Patna operated by a logistics company and remained there for several days.
Members of a network associated with Sanjeev Mukhiya are alleged to have obtained information about the printing press, the warehouse and the transportation vehicles. The papers were reportedly accessed and circulated before reaching the designated destinations. The Enforcement Directorate has referred to Telegram URLs, mobile numbers and bank accounts that formed part of the leakage and related transactions.
Kaushik Kumar Kar had approached the Patna High Court seeking regular bail. The matter was listed as Criminal Miscellaneous No. 78456 of 2024. The underlying police case was the same Economic Offences Unit case registered in 2023. On 16 April 2025, Justice Sourendra Pandey of the Patna High Court granted Kar regular bail. The court recorded the submissions made on both sides.
Kar’s lawyers submitted that his name did not appear in the original FIR and that he had been falsely implicated. They stated that he was neither a director nor an official of Caltex Multiventures. The directors of that company, according to the defence, were Saurav Bandyopadhyay, Suman Biswas and Sanjay Das.
The defence further submitted that Blessings Secured Press had only provided its printing machinery and resources under an agreement dated 14 February 2023 and that Caltex Multiventures retained supervision and control over the entire printing process. Kar’s counsel also stated that he had no connection with a driver named Rahul Kumar who had been arrested in the case. The defence informed the court that Kar had been in judicial custody since 27 June 2024 and that the Economic Offences Unit had already filed a chargesheet on 22 August 2024.
The Economic Offences Unit opposed the bail application. Its counsel submitted that Kar had previously been blacklisted from obtaining printing contracts for competitive examinations. The unit alleged that he arranged for a shell company to be created and placed an employee with marketing expertise as its director so that the printing and transportation contract could be obtained. The Economic Offences Unit further alleged that Kar personally participated in the transportation arrangements and that he attended and headed meetings with logistics companies even when no representative of Caltex Multiventures was present.
During the hearing the High Court specifically asked the Economic Offences Unit about evidence showing that the question paper had leaked from Kar’s company. The senior counsel for the unit stated that there was no specific finding in the investigation establishing that the paper had leaked from Kar’s company. The unit nevertheless maintained that Kar had been instrumental in obtaining the contract through the shell company and that this demonstrated an intention to procure the contract for illegal gains.
The High Court granted bail after considering the absence of a connection between Kar and the arrested driver, the fact that the directors of Caltex Multiventures had already been granted bail, and the circumstances of the case. Bail was granted subject to conditions that included a bond of Rs 10,000 with two sureties of the same amount, one of the bailors being a close relative, and the requirement of physical appearance before the trial court on each date fixed.
The Enforcement Directorate’s provisional attachment of properties in October 2026 is a separate proceeding under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It addresses the financial trail of the contract money rather than the question of bail in the original criminal case. The agency has stated that the Rs 2.01 crore diverted through shell entities constitutes proceeds of crime. Because those funds were converted into cash and could not be traced further, properties of matching value belonging to a company controlled by the same individual were attached.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act defines proceeds of crime as property derived or obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence, or the value of such property. The Act makes it an offence to be involved in any process or activity connected with such proceeds, including their concealment, possession, acquisition, use or projection as untainted property. Provisional attachment under the Act allows an authorised officer to freeze property believed to be proceeds of crime, subject to the conditions laid down in the statute. The attachment remains subject to adjudication by the competent authority.
The Enforcement Directorate’s press release of 30 October 2026 does not disclose the addresses of the five attached properties, their individual valuations, the dates on which they were acquired, or the names of the Kolkata-based shell entities through which the Rs 2.01 crore was allegedly moved. It also does not state the exact amount that Caltex Multiventures transferred to Blessings Secured Press out of the total advance of Rs 5.9 crore. The agency has confirmed that further investigation is under way.
The Bihar Police Constable Recruitment Examination 2023 paper leak case therefore involves two connected strands. One concerns the alleged conspiracy surrounding the procurement of the printing contract, the use of a company without prior printing experience or its own press, the concealed involvement of a previously blacklisted printing firm, and the leakage of the question papers during transportation from Kolkata to Patna. The other concerns the movement of the advance payment of Rs 5.9 crore received under that contract, the diversion of Rs 2.01 crore through shell entities, the conversion of those funds into cash, and the provisional attachment of properties of equivalent value held in the name of another company linked to the same individual.
The Enforcement Directorate’s latest action places the financial dimension of the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The provisional attachment of the five properties worth Rs 2.01 crore is the concrete step taken so far to secure assets corresponding to the amount the agency has identified as diverted and untraceable beyond the stage of cash conversion. The investigation continues.
