Nine more arrested in BMS paper leak case

Mumbai: The Amboli police on Friday arrested nine persons in connection to the fifth-semester Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) paper leak a day after a third-year student, who had carried the question papers on her mobile phone during the examinations, was nabbed.  The accused include three students and a few insiders, such as peons. The police said more arrests are likely, but refused to divulge details that might alert others involved in the case.

Police sources have said that the case was registered late on Thursday night and ten arrests were made by Friday. Sources also claimed that, in all, the persons arrested include three women and seven men, including four students and a peon working on the photocopy machine. The arrested accused have been taken into custody and are being questioned rigorously to determine their role in the paper leak scam.

Paramjit Singh Dahiya, deputy commissioner of police Zone 9 told The Asian Age, “We have roped in the cyber police officials too for providing assistance to track down the Internet Protocol (IP) address, which could be the source of the alleged leak.”

On Thursday, a third-year student was arrested after a junior supervisor caught two question papers of Logistics and Supply Chain Management exam, which was held on Monday and Marking-Service Marking, which was held on Wednesday, in her mobile phone during the examinations. These papers were leaked’ on WhatsApp an hour before the examinations started.

According to the college, the student was found with a replicated image of the question paper in her mobile phone. The college management immediately informed the University of Mumbai (MU) and the Pro Vice Chancellor of MU, who asked the college to report the matter to the nearest police station. A special team of officials was sent to the college by MU to look into the issue.

MU officials claimed that they have a ‘secured’ process of distributing the question papers in place. “We send the question papers to all the colleges via Digital Exam Paper Delivery System (DEPDS) on the day of examination. It is sent online two hours before the examination after which the college is supposed to take printouts according to number of students in the college and then start the distribution process,” said an official.The police has also seized nine mobile phones, computers, printer and DVR from the accused. Ten accused have been remanded to police custody till Saturday.

Why the DEPDS system?

The reason for bringing such a system was to get rid of the question paper leaks, which has been happening since many years in the city colleges. In the year 2016 several staff of MU were held for leaking the Engineering papers. In the same year, BCom papers were also leaked among students, who were caught by the police.