New Delhi/Shimla, April 7 (IANS) A Special Investigation Team of Delhi Police has arrested a teacher, a clerk and a support staff of a private school in Himachal Pradesh on charges of leaking the CBSE Class 12 Economics paper, an officer said on Saturday.

The SIT found out 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 the accused – 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 Central Superintendent of CBSE Examination Centre in Una, where he was responsible of conducting board examination in at least three schools including Jawahar Narvodya school, since 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, he, 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 Amit and Ashok took the computer science paper with them to the school, Rakesh Kumar clicked 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 his 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 so as 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 ascertain how many question papers Rakesh Kumar and his associates had leaked so far. We are also examining the CCTV footage of bank and questioning with bank employees is underway,” he added.

Noting the SIT has worked out this case with the help of Cyber Cell and handwriting experts, Upadhyay said that they will seek the trio’s police custody to interrogate them in connection with Class 10 maths question paper leak,” 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 told IANS the police team came and questioned him about the paper leak, but since he was not directly associated with the exams and had authorized Rakesh Kumar to conduct them, hence the latter 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 Whatsapp admins amongst each others. Via an email to the ‘Whatsapp’ Headquarters in California in US, the team was able to revive the deleted conversation that cracked the case.

The Central Board of Secondary Education 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.

–IANS
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