In a major breakthrough, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on Sunday arrested three persons, including two teachers of a private school, in connection with the alleged leak of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class XII economics paper.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar said, “The arrested are Rishabh and Rohit, both teachers at the Mother Khajani Convent School in Bawana, and Tauquir, who runs a coaching centre in Outer Delhi’s Bawana area.”
Rohit is a Physics teacher and Rishabh teaches Mathematics at the Mother Khajani Convent School in Bawana, added police. The Delhi Police said that they have not given clean chit to the CBSE.
Meanwhile, a CBSE official was suspended over laxity in supervising an examination centre in connection with the paper leak case and a formal enquiry has been initiated in the matter, the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry said on Sunday.
HRD Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted, “On the direction of HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar to take swift action against culprits, the CBSE has suspended KS Rana, the official found lax in supervising examination centre 0859 with immediate effect. A formal inquiry has been instituted.”
“Consequent to the arrest of two teachers from Mother Khajani Convent School, Mungeshpur, Delhi, and coaching institute head Tauquir by Delhi Police, for colluding to leak the class12 economics paper and probe done by CBSE, a CBSE official KS Rana, found lax in supervision,” he further tweeted.
According to police, the trio had been planning to leak the Economics Question paper for the last two weeks. “They are friends. So far, they have told us that it is the first time that they had leaked the paper,” said police.
The trio charged anything between Rs 2,000 and 5,000 for one paper and 50 per cent of money was taken by Tauqeer while the rest was distributed between Rohit and Rishabh, police added.
A senior police officer told The Pioneer, “On the basis of technical surveillance, we managed to track the whatsapp group on which the Class XII Economics paper was leaked. The number on which the whatsapp group was operating was mentioned in the FIR. We then tracked a student who revealed that the paper was forwarded to him by Tauquir.”
“Tauquer was traced in Bawana based on mobile phone number through which he forwarded Class XII Economics paper. While one of the Crime Branch teams was sent to Bawana on Saturday night, the other team visited the CBSE headquarters in Patparganj and questioned the officials of the Education Board for close to two hours,” the Joint CP said.
It was around 3 am that the Crime Branch team led by Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar raided a few premises in Outer Delhi’s Bawana and rounded up the trio.
“Tauquir was the first one who was picked up on the basis of technical surveillance. During interrogation, he has revealed involvement of the two school teachers following which Rishabh and Rohit were arrested,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr Ram Gopal Naik.
Explaining the leakage, Rohit told police that they had arrived at school two hours prior to their time of reporting on the day of exam for economics paper on March 26. Since they were assigned invigilation duty, the duo accessed the question paper, took a screenshot of the paper and then WhatsApped it to Tauquir, who further sent it to students,” police added.
“Usually these question papers are opened at 9.45 am. That day, the duo opened economics paper about half an hour early. Technical examination established that Tauquir received the paper from Rohit,” said a senior police officer.
The Delhi Police has got two days police remand for the three accused.
The cases of Maths and Economics paper leaks are being probed by two separate wings of the Crime Branch. Police said that efforts to identify the entire network and money trail are underway.
So far, police have questioned over 80 people including students, teachers at coaching centres, parents and few school teachers. More than 50 mobile phones that belonged to students, school teachers and tutors from coaching centres have also been seized and sent to laboratories for forensic examination.
late on Saturday night the principal and two teachers from a school in Bawana were questioned following suspicion of the paper being opened at school in their presence on March 26, before the Economics exam began.