Chargesheet filed against 10 persons in CBSE class 12 paper leak case: Delhi police

In order to favour a girl student, an Una-based teacher had allegedly leaked CBSE Class 12 economics paper in March this year, according to the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police in the case, a senior police official said Friday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) G Ram Gopal Naik confirmed the chargesheet has been filed against 10 persons on Thursday in a city court.

The 482-page chargesheet has cited 78 witnesses including the girl student, for whom her teacher leaked the paper and some students who had received the papers through WhatsApp, said another officer.

Recovered mobile phones, handwritten notes, question paper written by the girl student and other data retrieved from cell phones have been cited as evidence in the chargesheet.

"The teacher, Rakesh Kumar, wanted to favour a girl student and with the connivance of bank officials, he got the Economics paper and brought it to his residence. He called the girl home and she copied the paper and then he clicked pictures of the paper and circulated it. The girl is one of the witnesses in the case," said the officer.

Since he had access to the papers, he also leaked the Class 10 Mathematics paper in the same way to favour a woman relative in Ferozpur whose son was appearing for the Boards.

Along with Kumar, Sheru Ram, branch manager of Union Bank Of India, Om Prakash, head cashier of the same bank and a 40-year-old woman, who had circulated hand-written question papers of Class 12 economics and Class 10 mathematics via instant messaging platform WhatsApp from her mobile phone, were also arrested and have been named in the chargesheet as accused.

Two others, Amit Sharma and Ashok Kumar, who worked at the DAV school in Una along with Kumar, have also been named in the chargesheet, the officer said.

Apart from this, the police had also busted another module being operated by two teachers of Mother Khazani Convent School in Bawana.

In the Bawana module, three men, including two teachers of the private school, were involved.

The teachers - Rishabh and Rohit - had taken photographs of the economics paper and sent it to Tauqeer, who used to give private tuition. Tauqeer circulated the paper among his students about an hour before the examination commenced, police had said, adding, he had received the paper via WhatsApp from Rishabh and Rohit.

The principal of Mother Khazani School, Praveen Kumar Jha, was arrested in July and his name also figures in the chargesheet, the officer said.

The economics paper leak was exposed after an envelope containing four images of a hand-written copy of the question paper was delivered to the CBSE Headquarters in Delhi on the evening of March 26, the day of the exam.

On March 30, the Central Board of Secondary Education announced it would re-conduct the Class 12 economics exam throughout the country on April 25.

Besides the Class 12 economics paper, the mathematics paper of Class 10 had also surfaced online before the scheduled examination.

The Delhi Police had registered two cases in connection with the paper leak. The first case related to the leak of economics paper was registered on March 27, while the other pertaining to the leak of mathematics paper was filed on March 28.

The exams for Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers were held on March 28 and March 26 respectively.

After reports of the leak surfaced on March 28, the CBSE had announced it would re-conduct the economics exam on April 25.

The board had decided against holding a re-examination for mathematics, saying the examination was "largely an internal segment" of the school education system.

The results for Class 12 and 10 boards were announced on May 26 and 29 respectively.