Delhi Police begins probe in paper leak matter

The Delhi Police's crime branch has begun investigating the alleged leak of Class 12 economics and Class 10 mathematics papers after registering two separate cases in the matter, an official said today.

In the wake of reports claiming paper leaks, the CBSE today announced re-examination in the two papers.

On Monday, panic had gripped students of Class 12 following claims on social media that the economics paper had been leaked even though the Central Board of Secondary Education denied there was any slip up.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) R P Upadhyay and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar also held a meeting with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik in the evening to discuss the future course of investigation.

In a statement, the Delhi Police said that they have registered two cases. The first case in connection with the leak of economics paper was lodged yesterday while the case pertaining to mathematics paper was lodged today, following a complaint by the regional director of CBSE.

The cases were registered on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

A special investigation team comprising two deputy commissioners of police, four assistant commissioners of police and five inspectors has been set up to investigate the matter. The team will be directly supervised by the joint commissioner of police (crime).

"We have received snapshots of the handwritten paper circulated through Whatsapp from the complainant. We are trying to ascertain the source of these messages. Since Whatsapp messages are end-to-end encrypted, we are facing a bit of difficulty in tracing the source," said an officer privy to the probe.

The officer said they have not questioned any official from any of the examination centres or from the board. The questioning will happen once the source of messages is traced.

Reports about the economics paper being leaked had circulated on social media, including on WhatsApp, several hours before the paper commenced on Monday.

The CBSE, however, denied any leak and urged students and parents not to panic.

"We have checked with all exam centres and the paper was not leaked. The source of circulation of this information is not known yet. We want to urge the students and parents to not panic and assure them that the board is doing its best to ensure sanctity of the examination," a senior CBSE official had said.

A similar incident occurred on March 15, when the Delhi government had said that it had received complaints of the Class 12 CBSE accountancy paper being leaked. A probe was later ordered even though the board had denied any leak.

"There has been no leakage of the question paper. All the seals have been found intact at all exam centres. However, at local level, some miscreants may have circulated messages through WhatsApp and other social media platforms to hurt the sanctity of the exam," the board had said then.