Amid a nationwide outrage over the CBSE class 10 and 12 paper leaks, the HRD ministry suspended one board official and initiated a probe even as the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch arrested three persons, including two teachers of a private school, for their alleged involvement in the leak of the Class 12 economics paper.
The arrested include Rishabh (29) and Rohit (26), teachers at Mother Khajani Convent School, a private school in Bawana, and Tauqeer (26), a tutor at a private coaching centre. The initial probe found that it was friendship, not money that prompted the two school teachers to leak the class XII exam paper to the coaching centre tutor.
The school is also under the scanner for allegedly providing the question paper to the teachers around 9.10 am, 35 minutes before the stipulated time, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar said. This gave the two accused — Rohit and Rishabh — ample time to click the pictures of the paper and send them to Tauqeer, who circulated them to a student. The probe revealed that the three were friends for the past four-five years and the money involved was between Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000.
The police zeroed in on Tauqeer through 10 WhatsApp numbers, four of which were provided by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in its complaint, and used for circulating the leaked paper. The papers circulated through WhatsApp had a location code that matched with that of the code assigned to the private school from where the paper was leaked.
A student, who had got the paper, was found and he led the police to Tauqeer who was detained on Sunday. He shared details of his accomplices with the police after which the trio were arrested. All the three are currently in police custody for two days during which they would be questioned over the money trail and whether they leaked other papers, the police said.
The police have also questioned the principal and five teachers of the school in connection with the case. They have not been given a clean chit.
A series of tweets from School Education Secretary Anil Swarup said that K S Rana, a CBSE official, has been suspended over laxity in supervising an examination centre in connection with the paper leaks. “Consequent to the arrest of two teachers from Mother Khajani Convent School, Mungeshpur, Delhi, and a coaching institute Head, Tauquir by Delhi Police, for colluding to leak the Class 12 economics paper and probe done by CBSE, a #CBSE personnel, K S Rana has been found lax in supervision,” Swarup said.
“On the direction of the HRD Minister @PrakashJavdekar to take swift action against culprits, the Board has suspended K S Rana, the official found lax in supervising examination centre (0859) with immediate effect. A formal inquiry has been instituted,” he said.
The police said they learnt of the suspension of the official through the media. They, however, said that they will seek details from the CBSE and might question the official concerned.
A police officer said attempts to trace the source of the handwritten papers circulated a couple of days before the examination have not yielded concrete results as yet.
Posted in National
