Two physical education instructors from the city, who had bagged the best teacher award last year, were on Wednesday arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in connection with the question paper leakage of March 21 II pre-university chemistry exam.
CID sleuths said the two teachers allegedly sold the leaked question papers for a commission. With this, the total number of people arrested in the case has gone up to five.
Anil Kumar, PE instructor in Poornaprajna College at Sadashivnagar, and Satish B., PE teacher in the Government High School at Mathikere, were arrested based on the information provided by one of the suspects, Manjunath, PE instructor in a city college who was arrested on Monday. “The duo had bagged the best teacher award last year and were also felicitated by their respective institutions,” a senior police officer said.
Manjunath had informed the investigators that Anil and Satish, who got the leaked chemistry question paper from him, sold it to students, lecturers in other colleges and to tutorials for a commission.
Manjunath had reportedly told the investigators that he got the question paper from Shivakumar — said to be the key person in the case and who is presently on the run — and passed it on to Obalesh after clinching a deal.
Obalesh is the Officer on Special Duty of Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil.
Obalesh, in turn, handed over the paper to his relative Rudrappa, whose daughter is a II PU student, a day before the exam. Rudrappa’s daughter started selling the question paper to her friends through WhatsApp, which led to the expose.
The police, who grilled Anil and Satish at the CID office, learnt that the duo had close contacts with officials of the Department of Pre-University Education and SSLC board. Besides, they enjoyed political patronage and used to move around with political leaders frequently, sources said.
The police are now analysing the call record details of their mobile phones and checking their bank accounts to trail the financial transactions.
Meanwhile, a team of CID officials searched Shivakumar’s house in Nandini Layout and seized several documents. Shivakumar and his family members have been on the run since March 30.
According to investigators
PE instructors Anil Kumar and Satish got the leaked paper from Manjunath
They sold it to students, lecturers in other colleges and to tutorials for a commission
Manjunath, who is also a PE instructor, had reportedly got the paper from Shivakumar
Manjunath passed it on to Obalesh, Officer on Special Duty of Minister of State for Medical Education, after clinching a deal
Obalesh handed over the paper to his relative Rudrappa, whose daughter is a II PU student
Shivakumar, said to be the key person in the case, is on the run
