‘Nine of those arrested are minors and more details will emerge once interrogation is completed’.
The Jharkhand police arrested 12 persons, including nine minors, in Chatra district of the state on Saturday, in relation to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) paper leak case.
Confirming that arrests have been made by the Jharkhand police, Superintendent of Police (SP) Akhilesh Variar was quoted as telling the media: “Probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is still going on and, additionally, today we have arrested 12 persons, of which nine accused are minors. More details will emerge once we complete interrogation.”
According to Jharkhand police, three people arrested were from a coaching centre called “Study Vision” which allegedly leaked the CBSE question papers. Charges have been filed against them under the relevant section of the Indian Penal Code. All the minors will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB).
The Delhi Police had earlier already questioned over 100 people in connection with the CBSE leak case, including the administrators of over 10 WhatsApp groups on which the leaked question papers were shared. Investigators are searching for source of the question paper leak. Delhi Police has also asked for help from Google for reaching to the culprits.
A senior Delhi Police official close to the probe said: “All the suspects, including tutors and students, who were investigated by Delhi Police revealed that they got the question papers from someone else and the Delhi Police did not get any substantial evidence that money was charged for sharing these question papers.”
The leak of CBSE’s Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics papers has attracted wide criticism for the government. However, according to sources, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has already sent CBSE chief Anita Karwal on leave. In the wake of the incident, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday asked engineering students to devise solutions for making examinations “leak-proof”.
Meanwhile, the re-examination of the Class 12 Economics paper will be held on 25 April, while the education secretary said on Friday that the leak of the Class 10 Mathematics paper was restricted to only Delhi and Haryana, but a retest, if conducted, would not be held before July.