The Jharkhand Police on Friday detained six Class 10 students in the state’s Chatra region for their alleged involvement in leaking two question papers of the Central Board of Secondary Education, ANI reported. The students were detained for questioning at Chatra’s Sadar Police Station.
Handwritten copies of question papers for the Class 12 economics exam on Monday and the Class 10 mathematics exam on Wednesday had been leaked at least a day before each was to be held. As a result, the students will have to take the exams again.
The Delhi Police Crime Branch on Friday also identified more than 10 WhatsApp groups, each with around 50 members, which could be involved in the leak. They suspect that at least 1,000 students may have accessed the leaked papers.
The Delhi Police’s inquiry into the leak revealed on Thursday that the papers had been circulated for free. “All the persons we have questioned so far have admitted to receiving answers pertaining to questions in the leaked papers through electronic means before the examination dates,” said RP Upadhyay, special commissioner of the Delhi police’s Crime Branch.
Investigators have questioned 32 people so far, The Hindu reported.
“But they claimed to have shared it in their circles and not to have charged any money for that,” Upadhyay said. The CBSE has announced that it will conduct both exams again. In two separate complaints to the police, the CBSE has named at least four suspects. The police have not ruled out the involvement of insiders either.
Several students on Friday staged demonstrations outside the CBSE’s headquarters in Delhi against the paper leaks and re-examinations. The Congress’ Delhi unit and its student body, the National Students’ Union of India, also joined the protests. Students protested in Ludhiana in Punjab and in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh too.
Meanwhile, Congress leader and former Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal criticised the government for the question paper leaks. “Most surprising is that nobody is taking responsibility for these leaks,” Sibal said, according to DNA. “Had it been our government, you know what would have happened.”
He also alleged that the CBSE had known about the leak “eight hours before the exam”, and said a government that could not stop a question paper leak had no right to claim they could protect the nation.
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