Maharashtra SSC paper leak: Police probe finds board at fault too
The principal, Zakiya Shaikh, during her interrogation informed the police that the board did not inspect or verify the details of the school before granting it permission to become a centre for SSC examination.
mumbai Updated: Mar 27, 2018 00:17 IST
The Amboli police on Monday interrogated the principal of Mumbra-based Kids Paradise School for more than three hours in connection with the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) paper leak case and found out serious lapses from the state board’s side.
The principal, Zakiya Shaikh, during her interrogation informed the police that the board did not inspect or verify the details of the school before granting it permission to become a centre for SSC examination.
Daya Nayak, the investigating officer of the case said, “The principal was questioned for over three hours and although we have not found her involvement in the paper leak, a series of lapses have been noticed from her interrogation. We have called her again after two days as we want to be sure before giving her a clean chit.”
“During the interrogation we found that the board did not verify or inspect the school. More than 300 students were supposed to take their exam at the school, but no inspection was done regarding the infrastructure, staff or other necessary issues ,” said a police officer also connected with the investigation.
Police have already found that the school had hired invigilators from outside as it did not have enough staff to conduct the examination. The principal had revealed that the staff was brought by Feroz Khan, the prime accused in the case and the school did not have any record or details of these five invigilators. “When we get an application from a school or junior college to participate in the board exams as a centre, we verify the institute before giving our approval,” said in-charge secretary, Subhash Borse, Mumbai division of the state board. Borse, however, conceded that in this particular case, the school did not go through a verification process. “This school was originally an entity of another school which has been a board exam centre for some years. Therefore no verification was conducted when they approached us to allow their school to be used as an exam centre,” Borse said.
The probe has revealed that the husband of the principal used to bring the examination papers to the school by an auto, which is a breach of rules.