Punjab Woman Led Cops To Accused In CBSE Economics Paper Leak

The recent leak of CBSE question papers of Class 10 Maths and Class 12 Economics led the authorities to announce a re-test. Students obviously did not take the news well and there was widespread criticism. However, the Delhi Police have nabbed the three accused who planned the Economics paper leak. The woman, who led the Delhi Police to the trio -- commerce teacher Rakesh Kumar, clerk Amit Kumar and peon Ashok Kumar -- on Saturday is a housewife from Punjab.

Special commissioner of police (crime) RP Upadhyay told the media that the Delhi Police had to follow a trail of 40 WhatsApp groups, which led them to 37 students, five teachers, three private tutors and two housewives. It was only then that the police could reach the three accused.

“The complainant in the case, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), had provided us the name of one WhatsApp group. As we started following the trail of forwarded texts, most people we came across told us that they had simply received the leaked paper from someone on WhatsApp and in turn sent it to others unaware of the actual source. However, one Class 12 student in Delhi was evasive in his response,” Upadhyay told HT.

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On questioning further, the boy told the police that he had received the forward message from his aunt who lives in Punjab. The police then went on to question the woman.

“She actively denied any involvement in the leak in the beginning. Our probe later revealed that her own son, like her nephew, had appeared for the Class 12 CBSE examination this year. This re-affirmed our suspicion and we subjected her to sustained questioning. She eventually confessed that she had shared the images of the hand written question paper with her son and nephew after receiving it from her relative Rakesh Kumar from Una,” said Upadhyay.

She told the police that Rakesh had asked her not to share it with anyone except her own son. However, she wanted to help her nephew, so she sent it to him and then it spread like wildfire. DCP (crime) G Raj Gopal Naik disclosed that even the woman’s son had sent it to some of his friends which added to the paper leak.

“She actively denied any involvement in the leak in the beginning. Our probe later revealed that her own son, like her nephew, had appeared for the Class 12 CBSE examination this year. This re-affirmed our suspicion and we subjected her to sustained questioning. She eventually confessed that she had shared the images of the hand written question paper with her son and nephew after receiving it from her relative Rakesh Kumar from Una,” - Special CP (crime)

Upadhyay said that Rakesh crashed into the strong room of a designated bank on March 23 to get packets of computer science question papers, but allegedly ended up stealing a packet of economics paper also. Police also revealed that none of the CBSE officials accompanied Rakesh to the vault in which they had kept the papers locked.

The three arrested have told the police that they did not carry out the leak for any monetary gains, but just to help out one of Rakesh’s students who was struggling with the subject and the woman relative’s child.

“Rakesh claims that he takes private tuition classes for a batch of 15-20 student. One student in his class was weak in the subject and was sceptical about her chances of passing the exam. It was the same girl who hand copied the contents of the question papers whose images went viral. She herself claims to have not shared the paper with anyone. We will match her hand writing after she is done writing the re-examination scheduled later,” said Naik.

However, the police haven’t found anything against the bank staff who were present in the bank when the burglary happened. It has planned to question them further.

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