In order to favour a girl student, an Una-based teacher allegedly leaked the CBSE Class XII economics paper in March this year, stated the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police in the paper leak case, a senior police officer said on Friday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) G. Ram Gopal Naik confirmed that a chargesheet was filed on December 20 in a city court. The police has filed a chargesheet of 482 pages against 10 persons in the paper leak case.
78 witnesses
The chargesheet has cited 78 witnesses including the girl student, for whom her teacher leaked the paper and some students who had received the papers through WhatsApp, said another officer.
Recovered mobile phones, handwritten notes, question paper written by the girl student and other data retrieved from cell phones have been cited as evidence.
“The teacher, Rakesh Kumar, wanted to favour a girl student and with the connivance of bank officials, he got the economics paper and brought it to his residence. He called the girl home and she copied the paper. He then clicked pictures of the paper and circulated it. The girl is one of the witnesses in the case,” said the officer. Since the teacher had access to the papers, he also leaked Class 10 mathematics paper in the same way to favour a relative in Ferozpur whose son was appearing for the exams.
Other accused
Along with Mr. Kumar, branch manager of Union Bank of India Sheru Ram, head cashier of the same bank Om Prakash and a 40-year-old woman, who had circulated handwritten question papers of Class XII economics and Class X mathematics through WhatsApp from her mobile phone, were also arrested and have been named in the chargesheet as accused.
Two others — Amit Sharma and Ashok Kumar — who worked at the DAV School along with Mr. Kumar, have also been named in the chargesheet. In another development, the police had also busted another module being operated by two teachers of Mother Khazani Convent School in Bawana.
In the Bawana module, three men, including two teachers of the private school, were involved. The teachers — Rishabh and Rohit — had taken photographs of the economics paper and sent it to Tauqeer, who used to give private tuition. Tauqeer circulated the paper among his students about an hour before the examination commenced, the police had said, adding, he had received the paper via WhatsApp from Rishabh and Rohit.
The principal of Mother Khazani School, Praveen Kumar Jha, was arrested in July and his name also figures in the chargesheet, the officer said. The economics paper leak was exposed after an envelope containing four images of a handwritten copy of the question paper was delivered to the CBSE headquarters in Delhi on the evening of March 26, the day of the exam.
On March 30, the Central Board of Secondary Education announced it would reconduct the Class 12 economics exam across the country on April 25. Besides the Class XII economics paper, the mathematics paper of Class X had also surfaced online before the scheduled examination.
The police had registered two cases in connection with the paper leak. The first case related to the leak of economics paper was registered on March 27, while the other pertaining to the leak of mathematics paper was filed on March 28.