Teacher, 2 others held over CBSE paper leak

Police have arrested a teacher, a clerk and a support staff of a private school in Himachal Pradesh on charges of leaking the Central Board of Secondary Education Class 12 economics paper, an officer said yesterday. A Special Investigation Team of Delhi Police has found that the economics paper was leaked in handwritten format two days prior to the exam held on March 26, a Delhi Police official said.Police said Rakesh Kumar, a teacher, Amit Sharma, a clerk and Ashok Kumar, a support staff in DAV Centenary Public School in Una, were taken into custody on Friday.According to Delhi Police’s Special Commissioner R P Upadhyaya, Rakesh Kumar was working as a teacher in the school since 2010 and had been made the Central Superintendent of CBSE Examination Centre in Una, where he was responsible of conducting the board examinations in at least three schools including Jawahar Narvodya School for the last three years.“He had access to the Union Bank of India branch where sealed question papers were kept under his custody. It was his duty to further take these papers in schools,” Upadhyaya said, adding that two days before the Class 12 economics paper, the teacher, along with Amit Sharma and Ashok Kumar, went to collect the question paper of computer science but also took out the economics question paper from the bundle.While Sharma and Ashok Kumar took the computer science paper with them to the school, Rakesh Kumar took photos of the economics paper with his mobile and sent it through WhatsApp to his tuition student to prepare a hand-written copy, said the police officer. The teacher put it back in the bundle and resealed it on the day of economics exam and since he was the superintendent, no one suspected him.Rakesh Kumar subsequently sent the handwritten economics paper to a relative, whose son was appearing in the exam, in Chandigarh and this student sent it to a WhatsApp group, from which it was circulated in over 40 such groups from Chandigarh to Pune, Upadhyaya added.Rakesh Kumar later deleted the pictures of the question paper in a bid to remove proof of his involvement, the police officer said. However, a majority of the members of such groups did not take the handwritten question paper seriously but hundreds found it beneficial.“No monetary exchanges have been found so far in investigation. We are trying to find out how many question papers Rakesh Kumar and his associates had leaked so far. We are also examining the CCTV footage of the bank and questioning of the bank employees is underway,” he added.Upadhyay said the SIT worked out the case with the help of Cyber Cell and handwriting experts.He said the police will seek the three suspects’ custody to interrogate them in connection with Class 10 maths question paper leak too,” he said.He said that the SIT has interrogated over 70 people, including WhatsApp admins, school teachers, ground staff, students and others to trace the leak’s point of origin and beneficiaries.“Finally on the basis of crucial clues and leads, the arrests were made from Himachal Pradesh,” Upadhyaya said.DAV Centenary Public School principal Atul Mahajan said the police questioned him about the paper leak, but since he was not directly associated with the exams and had authorised Rakesh Kumar to conduct them, the teacher was arrested. “Police also collected certain documents from the school,” he added.The investigators had sought the deleted chats and contexts shared by the group members and the WhatsAapp admins among each other. The police were able to revive the deleted conversation with help from the WhatsApp headquarters in California.The CBSE’s academic unit at Rouse Avenue had on March 26 received some sheets of handwritten answers of economics paper in a blank envelope before the exam commenced.On April 1, three others, including two teachers of a convent school, were arrested in the case.