In what was a reminder of the question paper leak that rocked last year’s II Pre University examination, two persons were arrested by the Tumkur police on the charge of leaking the biology question paper on Thursday. However, neither the State government nor anyone from the Department of Pre University Education could confirm that the leaked question paper matched the one that was given to the students.
In all, 1.25 lakh students wrote the biology paper at 893 centres on the second day of the examination. The number of students who wrote the electronics examination in 179 centres was 8,449.
Even as Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said that an inquiry was on, Deputy Director of Pre-University Board, Tumkur, Jayaprakash denied that there was a leak. He said that the questions in the leaked paper could be purely guesswork.
The police identified the arrested persons as Devendra (53), a retired teacher of Nandini Layout in Bangalore, and Mallesh, a final year B.Sc student of Venkateshwara College in Bangalore and a native of Mahalakshminagar in Gubbi town in Tumkur district.
The District Crime Investigation Bureau police, headed by Circle Inspector of Police Ravikumar, received information about the sale of question papers near the Mahatma Gandhi stadium on Wednesday night. The police arrested Mallesh near the stadium at around midnight and seized Rs. 15,000 in cash, a handwritten question paper and a motorcycle from him.
Mallesh then revealed the whereabouts of Devendra who was arrested from Sampige Comforts. The police seized over Rs. 1 lakh in cash, handwritten biology question papers and their photocopies, as well as a car from him.
The police are on the lookout for two other accused in the case, Shivakumaraiah, a native of Kaggere in Gubbi taluk, and Eramallaiah, a resident of Gubbi town in Tumkur district. Eramallaiah is Mallesh’s father.
The police added that they have information about those who have bought the question papers from the accused.
Cases have been registered at the New Extension police station in Tumkur under the Indian Penal Code and Karnataka Education Act, 1983.
Not the first
Last year too, when the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police, while investigating the maths and physics paper leak, had found that the biology paper had been leaked as well, the department had denied it and a re-exam had been ruled out.
Debarred
On the second day, seven students were debarred for indulging in malpractices. Bijapur had the highest number of such cases with three, followed by Belgaum, Dharwad, Gulbarga and Mandya with one each.
