ITI question leak: Cops in Lucknow to nab suspect

PATNA: A special investigation team (SIT) team of Patna police reached Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday to arrest the prime suspect in the recent Industrial Training Institute (ITI) question paper leak case. The suspect has been identified as Lallan Verma, who works as an instructor in government-run ITI college at ITI Chowraha in Lucknow.
SIT sources said Verma also owned a private ITI college in Jamui and had strong links with officials of state labour resources department and other private ITI colleges in Bihar. Police are probing whether the question papers of ITI examinations had leaked only in Bihar or in other states too.

All four sets of the question papers and solved answer keys of two theory subjects – trade theory and engineering drawing – were leaked hours before the two examinations commenced on January 7 and January 9. A set of leaked question papers with solved keys of ‘engineering drawing’ was allegedly mailed to the labour resources department officials on the night of January 8. The person had also made a call on one of the landline number of the department to inform the officials about it.

The centralized examinations, known as All India Trade Test (AITT), January 2018, are being conducted across the country by directorate general of training (DGT) of Union ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship. It is DGT which prepares questions and supplies to every state before examination. The practical examinations were conducted from January 19 to January 31, while the theory examinations started February 5 and ended on Thursday across India.

A senior official, who is also the part of the investigation, said only arrest of Verma would make it clear whether the question papers were leaked only in Bihar or in other states as well. “A big interstate racket is suspected to be working behind leaking ITI question papers,” he added. Meanwhile, police have detained two suspects – Mukesh Kumar and Vishwajeet Ram – from Govindpur in Nawada and Mohiddinagar in Lakhisarai, respectively.

“The detained persons were brought to Patna for interrogation. Mukesh was the person who had mailed the leaked question papers to the department. He works as instructor at Maurya ITI, a private college in Nawada. Vishwajeet also works as an instructor with Sikandra ITI, a private college in Jamui,” the official said.