Four persons have so far been arrested by the Navi Mumbai police in connection with the Higher Secondary Certificate ( HSC) question paper leak case, according to Commissioner of Navi Mumbai Police Hemant Nagrale.
Vashi police at 3.40 a.m. on Monday arrested Mohammed Aman Mohammad Islam Sheikh (19), an external student of HSC, and Suresh Vimalchand Jha (26), a teacher at a private coaching class. Both are residents of Kandivali (East). The police at 9 p.m. on Sunday had arrested Azharuddin Shaikh (20) and Rahul Bhaskar (22) — first and second year students of Commerce Graduation College respectively — from Malwan in Malad.
According to the police, all four have been accused of circulating page numbers 1, 2 and 3 of Class XII Secretarial Practice question paper to different WhatsApp groups minutes before the exam started. The accused have been arrested under the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University, Board & Other Specified Exams Act, 1982, read with section 66A(a) of the IT Act. They were produced before the Magistrate Court on Monday and remanded in police custody till March 9.
On Friday, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), which conducts the HSC exams, filed an FIR at Vashi police station after the Marathi question paper was leaked on Thursday before the exam. On Saturday, a second FIR was registered after three pages of the Secretarial Practice question paper was leaked on WhatsApp. No arrests have been made in the Marathi paper leak case yet.
Police Inspector Chetan Kakade, from Vashi police station, said, “We received a complaint from Dattatraya Jagtap, chairman, Mumbai Division, MSBSHSE, who said a media person informed him about the question paper being circulated on WhatsApp. We contacted the media person and traced the WhatsApp group that circulated the question paper. With the help of the cyber cell, we found out the admin of the group and his address from the service provider. The admin was a college student, but he was not involved in forwarding the message. We seized his mobile and traced the other members of the group. After seizing their mobiles, we found that the messages were sent to another WhatsApp group.” The police have till now seized 28 mobile phones belonging to the members of 15 WhatsApp groups. Mr. Kakade said, “We have also traced a few students from Class XII, but we are not taking any action as their exams are going on. Mohammad Aman Mohammad Islam Shaikh was also appearing for the HSC exams externally for two subjects, which are now over, so we arrested him.”
All the arrested are just a part of the trail of WhatsApp messages. Mr. Kakade said, “We have police custody of the accused till March 9, we will have to interrogate them to know more about their intention and if they received any money for forwarding the images. If money is involved, more Sections will be added in the case making it a more serious offence. We have found that there were WhatsApp groups formed only for the purpose of sharing the images. Forensic tests of the mobile phones and tracing more members of the group will take some more time. But we will surely find out the origin of the trail.”
Police have appealed to students that even forwarding such messages for fun could also land them behind bars. Mr. Kakade said, “Leaking papers and forwarding them is a crime. Anyone who finds such messages on WhatApp should not forward them, but instead report it to the police.”
Maths paper leaked
On Monday, a student was caught carrying pictures of the Class XII Maths question paper on WhatsApp at MMK College in Bandra. Mr. Jagtap said, “The student was found when he arrived late. The teacher and the security guard checked his mobile on suspicion and found copies of today’s Maths papers on his WhatsApp.” The student had copies of three pages of the Maths paper of Science Division and one page of the Maths paper of Commerce Division. The student, whose name is not being disclosed by the board, was allowed to complete his paper and then handed over to the Khar police station. “The student has not been arrested. We questioned him and let him go. He could be called back for investigations later,” said Ramchandra Jadhav, senior police inspector of Khar police station. A case has been filed against unknown persons under Section 7 of the Malpractices Act, but no case has been filed under the IT Act. Education Minister Vinod Tawde has said the cyber crime cell is also investigating the case.
Mr. Jagtap said, “There seems to be a pattern. The papers are leaked when they are about to be distributed. Students are seated by 10.30 a.m. and receive their papers by 10.50 a.m. The papers are circulated 40 minutes before the exams start. We suspect students who leak the paper deliberately turn up late for the exams at around 11.30 a.m., which is the deadline to enter the examination hall. We have directed teachers to keep an eye on all late comers to curb copying among students.” The board has even banned teachers from carrying mobiles.
Mr. Tawde has expressed his concern about the issue and has directed the department to ensure that such leaks are not repeated. He said most of the students were already in the exam hall when this student was caught from outside the college premises, so Monday’s case cannnot be considered as a case of paper leak.
Meanwhile, the frequent leaking of exam papers has upset parents and they are planning to ask the government to take action on the issue. Shalaka Salvi, secretary of the Mumbai unit of the Parent Teachers Association United Forum, said, “This is really unfair on students who study throughout the year to prepare for these crucial exams. Even one percentage of marks affects their admissions. Students are upset about the paper leaks; it affects their morale and hampers their performance. We are trying to meet the Education Minister to submit a memorandum to demand the busting of this racket.”
Jayant Jain, president, Forum for Fairness in Education, said, “There is a direct link between paper leaks and private coaching classes. Paper leaks happen due to nexus between government officials and coaching classes. Students may be buying the paper for ₹3,000-5,000 but the network runs much deeper. Coaching classes are flush with crores of funds, make big promises to students and have a lot at stake. Also, many teachers of colleges also teach at coaching classes. Since, the leaks are happening so consistently, the government must put its cyber cell to work to get to the root of the crime.”
