While the gang involved in leakage of UP Board’s English question paper of Intermediate exam is yet to be busted by the Special Task Force, the State Government on Thursday asked the district authorities to make random verification of paper bundles kept under tight security and submit their findings by Saturday evening.
The Class 12 English examination was cancelled in 24 districts on Wednesday after the paper was leaked and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered stringent action, including invoking the National Security Act, against the culprits.
The cancelled exam will now be held on April 13, an official statement had said.
Issuing a circular in this regard on Thursday evening, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said that the local authorities of all the districts, including districts magistrates, police commissioners, district police chiefs, district inspectors of school, etc should make random check of at least 20 per cent of centres in each district where question paper bundles were kept under tight security.
He said that these officials would verify whether the seal on the bundles were not tampered with in any way and in case any suspicion arose, they would initiate immediate legal proceedings and appraise the UP Board of Higher Secondary so that they may also take necessary action.
Awasthi also directed the officials that for each random checking, the officers should cross-verify the seals and later send a detailed report to the government by 7 pm on Saturday of the findings made by them.
He said this measure was taken to ensure that no paper leakage could take place from now onwards besides if any discrepancies were found, timely action could be taken so that the exams were not cancelled at the last moment.
Meanwhile, seven more people, including two local journalists, were arrested on Thursday in connection with the leak of Class 12 English paper of the UP Board, police said. Deputy Superintendent of Police (Rasra) Shiv Narayan Vyas said seven more people were arrested in connection with the case by Nagara police on Thursday.
Those arrested include two local scribes, Digvijay Singh and Manoj Gupta, he said.
The officer noted that altogether 24 people have so far been arrested in connection with the incident. Police have lodged three separate FIRs in Ballia City Kotwali, Nagara and Sikandarpur police stations on Wednesday in this regard.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar had said the Ballia district magistrate and district police chief got information on Wednesday morning that the second shift paper had been leaked. He had said on Wednesday that two of the accused were arrested from Ballia's Kotwali police station area, 10 from Nagara and five from Sikandarpur. "Ballia DIoS (Director Inspector of Schools) Brajesh Kumar Mishra is among those arrested," he said.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police to probe the case.