Cheating in HSC paper, 9 from Daund centre booked

PUNE: The big push to keep the state board exams free from copying ran off the road on Monday when a flying squad from Pune zilla parishad's education department spotted large-scale cheating during the HSC physics paper at Jawahar Junior and Senior College in Kedgaon in Daund taluka, some 120km from here.
Flying squad member Kisan Bhujbal, who registered an FIR with the Yavat police, said, "When we found the centre head missing, we inspected the campus. On seeing us, the students began throwing away all the material to copy they were carrying with them. We found photocopies of textbooks, pages torn from textbooks and notebooks lying on the floor inside the classrooms and outside. Their supervisors present inside did not say a word about the situation."
Police have registered a criminal case against the exam centre head and eight others. They were booked for influencing and supporting cheating during the examination.
Three members of the squad visited centre no. 193 at Jawaharlal Vidyalaya around 12.15pm when the exam was underway. Inspector Hemant Shedge of the Yavat police said the case was registered under section 8 of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act against all nine people.
“We will record their statements and file the chargesheet,” Shedge said. The FIR said the college officials did not follow the mandatory protocol of frisking students before they enter the exam halls and allowed them to carry the chits.
State board chairman Sharad Gosavi told TOI on Tuesday that Pune divisional board officials will carry out an inquiry based on the report submitted by the block officers. He said the report will be submitted by the division to the state board after which action will be taken as per rules related to cheating.
“This is a case of extreme negligence by the centre head who chose to remain absent from his duties during the exam. Questions have been raised about how students were allowed to carry chits for cheating into the classrooms,” he added. Gosavi denied that it was a case of mass copying. “Mass copying is when many students have identical answer papers.
In this case, two students with similar answer sheets were found. Chits and pages from textbooks were seen lying on the exam centre’s premises. Separate action will be taken against the two students depending on the report submitted by the division,” he said. Pune ZP chief executive officer Ayush Prasad said, “We have seized and handed over the material used to cheat in the exam to the police. An FIR has been filed under the law for the first time since its enactment in 2016.
We have coordinated with the police department and the civic bodies to strictly enforce copy-free exams of the state board.” For the first time, the state board had told supervisors to read out the offences and punishments for copying in class.
Besides, intense meetings were conducted with district collectors, divisional commissioners, ZP officials, education department officials and tehsildars to ensure that the exams are conducted under strict surveillance.
According to the daily copy case report by the state board, about 10-12 cases of cheating have been registered by the state board across the state since the exams started.