Two teachers, tutor arrested in Delhi over CBSE leaks

New Delhi: Three people, including two teachers of a private school in Outer Delhi’s Bawana area, were arrested by the Delhi police crime branch on Sunday over the leak of the Class 12 CBSE Economics paper. The two teachers were identified as Rohit and Rishabh, while the third person, Touqeer, is a tutor at a coaching centre in Bawana. Investigations revealed Touqeer had allegedly leaked the Economics paper half an hour before the exam and sent it to the teachers through WhatsApp.

The Mother Khajani Convent School, whose two teachers were arrested, is also under the scanner for allegedly providing the question papers to the teachers much before the scheduled time, a police officer privy to the probe said.

The invigilators are provided question papers at 9.45 am on the examination day and are allowed to open those immediately. The exam starts at 10.30 am. In this case, however, the school authorities allegedly provided the question papers to the teachers around 9.10 am, which gave the two accused — Rohit and Rishabh — ample time to click the pictures and send to Tauqeer, a tutor at a private coaching centre, who circulated them to the students, the official said.

He said the police are also probing whether the school had provided question papers of other subjects to the teachers before the scheduled time and whether those were also leaked.

The police has questioned the principal and five teachers of the school over the matter. They have not been given a clean chit, said the official.

The Congress Party, meanwhile, on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak out on the paper leak and offer a solution to the students affected by it.

The Delhi police had registered two cases over the leaks. The first case relating to the leak of the Economics paper was lodged on March 27, and the other pertaining to the Class 10 Mathematics paper was lodged on March 28, following a complaint by the CBSE regional director. The Class 10 Maths and Class 12 Economics papers were held on March 28 and March 26 respectively.

The crime branch has questioned over 60 people in connection with the leak, including the administrators of over 10 WhatsApp groups on which the leaked question papers were shared. Those questioned, including tutors and students, had revealed that they got the papers from someone else, an official said. There was nothing to show that money was charged for sharing these papers,  he said.

Congress leader  Pawan Khera said clarity was still missing over the paper leak and this had led to chaos.  Questioning the silence of senior BJP leaders over the issue, he said Prime Minister Modi should answer the questions that were being raised. “It is unfortunate that the youth of this country are turning (into) cynics. It’s a serious matter. Arun Jaitley is quiet, so is Ravi Shankar Prasad... And Smriti Irani is glum. So let Modiji answer, and provide a solution for the youth,” he said.

Alleging that the government was “involved in full-time politics and part-time governance”, Mr Khera accused it of keeping parents and students in the dark. “Today, parents and students don’t know what the government wants. (Prakash) Javadekarji says that other than those in Delhi and NCR, no other child has to appear for a retest,” he told reporters. But the Jharkhand police, he added, had said the leak affected students across India.

“Why is there no clarity? Don’t they understand that they are playing with the future of our youth,” Mr Khera said. The Congress leader also referred to the arrest Saturday of Satish  Pandey, an alleged ABVP leader who runs a coaching institute in Jharkhand. “He is linked to the Sangh. Why did he have the paper? There are layers and layers of mysterious information in this,” he said, adding that the last few days had seen the “nationalisation of the Vyapam model of the BJP”.

“There is an involvement of government or leadership of the BJP. We demand an inquiry which will reveal the roots,” he said. Earlier, the HRD ministry had said that a preliminary inquiry had found the CBSE paper leak was restricted to Delhi, NCR and Haryana, and if required the retests would be held for the Class 10 Maths paper only in these areas in July. However, the retest for the Class 12 Economics paper will be across India on April 25.

Mr Khera also wondered if something that was leaked through social media platforms like WhatsApp could be restricted to the Delhi-NCR region. “Javadekarji, you come from a party where most leaders and supporters have gained their education from WhatsApp university. And you are not understanding that it’s scientifically impossible to restrict WhatsApp,” he said.

The Congress leader said the recent lathicharge on a group of young protesters demonstrating against the alleged leak in a Staff Selection Commission (SSC) paper was “criminal” of the government, and said the government should have had a discussion with the protesters. He also said the government should agree to a Supreme Court-monitored CBI inquiry into the SSC leak case.

The CBSE on Sunday also clarified that the Class 12 Sanskrit paper being circulated on social media was in fact an earlier year’s question paper and urged people not to spread rumours. “Students are hereby alerted not to believe or subscribe to any such sites. It is reiterated that the question papers circulating on these social media sites are either of earlier years or fake question papers,” the CBSE statement said.