A day after the Delhi Police registered two FIRs in the Class X Maths and Class XII Economics paper leaks of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Delhi Police Crime Branch on Thursday said they have questioned 25 people in connection with the paper leak.
“The scope of the probe has been expanded and teams have been directed to investigate whether the racket was limited to the national Capital only or was being operated in other cities too,” said a top police official involved in the probe.
According to top sources in the Delhi Police, investigation is currently focusing on the role of CBSE officials, invigilators and school staff, coaching centres and printers.
Crime Branch sleuths have identified certain WhatsApp numbers that were allegedly used for circulating papers in the groups.
“They all will be questioned once we identify the origin of the messages. It has been learnt that some 10 students, all from various convent schools, received the leaked question papers initially,” sources said.
RP Upadhyay, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) said, “We have constituted a Special Investigation Team comprising two DCPs, four ACPs and five Inspector rank officials. A total of 25 people, including five college students and five private tutors, have been interrogated by the Delhi Police Crime branch in connection with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) paper leaks.”
Police on Thursday said children of various Delhi schools shared question papers on WhatsApp before exams. “Eleven schoolchildren, seven college students, five tutors and two private persons have been questioned so far,” said a senior police officer.
“We are also verifying the fax which was sent to the CBSE from an unidentified. If need be, we will send the teams to other States. We suspect that the leak was done by a racket working across other States in the country,” said the officer.
Certain officials of CBSE and those manning vaults of the different banks are being questioned to ascertain their involvement in this racket, sources added.
Police sources said the Crime Branch has detained a Delhi-based coaching centre owner identified as Vicky and Pulkit Sharma, a businessman from North Delhi for interrogation. Preliminary investigations have revealed that Vicky and Sharma were running the racket and their activities for the last few months are being probed, sources said.
Police said Vicky, who runs a coaching centre at Old Rajinder Nagar for Maths and Science subjects, has been detained for his alleged role in circulating the leaked papers.
“The CBSE officials received a complaint via fax from an unknown person on March 23 that Vicky is involved in the leak of question papers,” said a police officer.
The FIR, registered by the Crime Branch on the complaint of the CBSE, also mentioned Vicky’s name, the officer added.
According to the officer, the CBSE academic unit at Rouse Avenue had on March 26 received some sheets of handwritten answers of Economics paper before the exam commenced.
“Police are suspecting a strong syndicate involved in the question paper leak. We will also question CBSE officers who could be involved,” he added.