Madhyamik cheat: 4 held...CID unveils racket leaking questions in whatsapp

TT, 19 February 2019, Calcutta: Two Madhyamik examinees and two Class XII students are among five arrested by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for allegedly being part of the racket that took pictures of Madhyamik question papers within minutes of the start of a test and supplying answers to examinees.

Class XII students Sahabul Amir, 18 years and five months old, was arrested from Malda and Shahbaz Mondal, 18 years and seven months, from Katwa in Burdwan. Another person, Sajidur Rahman was picked up from Hooghly, a CID officer said.

The two arrested Madhyamik examinees were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board in Salt Lake and they were sent to a state-run home since they were below 18, the officer said. Sahabul and Shahbaz were produced in a Bidhannagar court and they were remanded in police custody for four days.

According to the police, the arrests were made during raids conducted at various parts of the state in the past 24 hours.

The CID took charge of the probe after a complaint was lodged by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education with Bidhannagar cyber police station on February 12.

Sleuths said the two examinees had been engaged to take pictures immediately after distribution of the question pa- pers and send them through WhatsApp to a group especially created to circulate answers.

A WhatsApp group was opened by the accused, a source in the board said.

The Madhyamik examinees who were part of the racket would take pictures of question papers in the examination hall and send them to the group. There are others in the group who would write the answers and supply them to the candidates, the source said.

"The two examinees were the sources from where the question paper was first circulated. They entered the examination centres with mobile phones and clicked pictures of the question papers shortly after it was distributed among the examinees. The two students circulated the photographs of the question paper in the whatsapp group for solving and dissemination of answers after start of the examination," said the officer.

There are reports that a certain amount of money was charged from the candidates to be a member of the group, the source said.

"The answers were supplied to the candidates in exchange of money," he added.

Raids are being continued to apprehend others involved in the racket, he added.

" The probe is still on. We have asked the board to take suitable measures to prevent such lapses," education minister Partha Chatterjee said.