CBSE papers leak: Board official, found lax in supervising exam centre, suspended

IANS photo

NEW DELHI: Hours after Crime Branch of Delhi Police arrested three individuals accused in the CBSE papers leak scam, the HRD Ministry on Sunday said that the board has suspended an official with immediate effect in connection with the incident. CBSE official KS Rana has been found lax in supervising the examination centre (0859) - from where the paper was leaked.

"On the direction of HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar to take swift action against culprits, the Board has suspended KS Rana, the official found lax in supervising examination centre (0859) with immediate effect. A formal inquiry has been instituted," Secretary HRD Ministry Anil Swarup told ANI.

Consequent to arrest of 2 teachers from Mother Khajani Convent School, Mungeshpur, Delhi, & a coaching institute Head, Tauquir by Delhi Police, for colluding to leak the Class12 eco. paper&probe done by CBSE, a #CBSE personnel, KS Rana, found lax in supervision: Secy HRD Ministry pic.twitter.com/jNL24cldDL — ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2018

In the wake of the CBSE papers leak scam, Delhi Police Crime Branch, earlier in the day, arrested three individuals which include two teachers and the owner of a coaching centre. Following this, Delhi's Karkardooma court sent all the three accused to two days police custody. 

Addressing the media, Delhi Police Joint CP Crime Branch said, "Two teachers and a tutor were arrested. Police custody remand of all three has been taken, they will be questioned."

The teachers, identified as Rishabh and Rohit, are associated with a school in outer Delhi area and were arrested on Sunday morning. The school teachers clicked the images and sent it to Tauqir, the coaching institute owner, based in Bawana. Tauqir then passed it to students.

Paper was also leaked in handwritten form, for which probe is on, reported ANI. The paper was leaked half-an-hour before the scheduled test.

Authorities had sought the details of the e-mail address from Google to identify the source from where the Central Board of Secondary Education chairperson was sent a mail on the Class 10 mathematics paper being leaked. On Saturday, Google reverted saying that a Class 10 student used father's ID to send mail to the board chairperson about the paper being leaked. Both the student and his father were questioned.

Over 60 people, including 53 students and seven teachers have been questioned till now. The admins of over 10 WhatsApp groups on which the leaked question papers were circulated were interrogated.

A day before the Class 10 Mathematics exam, that is March 27, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) received an e-mail claiming that the paper had been leaked.

The police too got a call in the control room about the alleged paper leak on the same Tuesday. Later, on its official website - cbse.nic.in - the board announced its decision to reconduct Maths and Economics paper. 

The cases were registered on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

The Class 12 economics and Class 10 mathematics exams were held on March 26 and March 28 respectively.