Paper leak: 2 teachers among 3 held, CBSE official suspended

A Central Board of Secondary Education official has been 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 human resource development ministry said on Sunday.

Earlier, three persons, including teachers of a private school at Bawana in outer Delhi, were arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police for their suspected roles in the leak of Class 12 CBSE economics paper.

'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,’ School Education Secretary Anil Swarup said on Twitter.

'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.

Those arrested have been identified as Rishabh, 29, and Rohit, 26, teachers at a private school in Bawana, and Tauqeer, 26, a tutor at a private coaching centre there, the police said.

All three have been sent to two-day police custody.

On the days of the examination, Tauqeer used to circulate leaked question papers about an hour before their beginning among his tuition students who would further circulate them among their friends.

He used to get the leaked papers on WhatsApp from Rishabh, who is a Physics teacher and Rohit, who is a Mathematics teacher, at the same school.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar said, “It is at 9.45 am when the papers are opened. The teachers’ duo used to click the pictures of the papers 40 minutes prior to that and send to Tauqeer who further used to circulate to the students.”

Rohit used to send the papers to Tauqeer on Rishabh's instructions.

The police zeroed in on Tauqeer by following four WhatsApp numbers provided by the CBSE in its complaint and used for circulating the leaked papers, another officer said.
A student who had got the paper was found and he led the police to Tauqeer who was detained on Saturday.

He shared details of his accomplices with the police after which the trio was arrested, the police said.

The trio is currently in police custody for two days during which they would be questioned over the money trail and whether they have leaked other papers.

Another teacher at a private school is also under the scanner for his alleged role in the leakage of papers and the police are on the lookout for him.

The Delhi Police had registered two cases involving the leaks.

The first case, related to the leak of Economics paper was lodged on March 27, while the other pertaining to the leak of Mathematics paper was lodged on March 28, following a complaint by the CBSE's regional director.

The examinations for the Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economic papers had been held on March 28 and March 26 respectively.

The Crime Branch has questioned over 60 people in connection with the CBSE paper leak case, including the administrators of over 10 WhatsApp groups on which the leaked question papers were shared.

Those questioned, including tutors and students, had revealed that they got the papers from someone else, an official privy to the probe said.

There is nothing till now to indicate that money was charged for sharing these papers, he said.

Meanwhile, Mother Khajani Convent School, where Rohit and Rishabh taught, is under the scanner for allegedly providing the question papers to the teachers much before the scheduled time, a police officer privy to the probe said.

The invigilators are provided question papers at 9.45 am on the examination day and are allowed to open those immediately. The exam starts at 10.30 am.

However, in this case, the school authorities allegedly provided the question papers to teachers around 9.10 am which gave the two accused ample time to click the pictures and send to Tauqeer.

He said the police are also probing whether the school had provided question papers of other subjects to the teachers before the scheduled time and whether those were also leaked.

Police has questioned the principal and five teachers of the school in connection with the matter.

They have not been given a clean chit, said the official.