Two bank officials, woman held in CBSE maths question paper leak

New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) Three more persons -- two bank officials and a woman -- have been arrested in connection with the leak of Central Board of Secondary Education Class 10 mathematics question paper, police said on Thursday.

Accused Manju Bala, 42, is a resident of Punjab's Firozepur while Head Cashier Om Prakash, 58, and Branch Manager Sheru Ram, 35, are posted at the Union Bank of India in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. They were arrested on Wednesday.

The police had on April 6 arrested three persons from Himachal Pradesh -- teacher Rakesh Kumar, clerk Amit Sharma and support staff Ashok Kumar of DAV Centenary Public School in Una in connection with the leak of CBSE Class 12 Economics paper.

"During interrogation with main kingpin Rakesh Kumar, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) found that he not only leaked Class 12 Economics paper on March 23 but also Class 10 maths paper to his relative Manju Bala and shared it through WhatsApp in handwritten form," Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar said.

"While Amit and Ashok took the computer science paper with them to the school on March 23, Rakesh Kumar clicked photos of the economics and mathematics papers. The teacher later put it back in the bundle and resealed it since he was the exam Superintendent and no one suspected him," Alok Kumar said.

The police officer said the accused then called student taking tuitions from him at his residence and got the paper handwritten and took its photographs on his mobile.

"Kumar then shared the handwritten question paper with Bala on WhatsApp, who further sent it to one of her relatives and thus the paper went viral on many WhatsApp groups. Kumar later deleted all digital evidence from his mobile," he added.

The SIT arrested Sheru Ram and Om Prakash for violating CBSE guidelines by giving access to Rakesh Kumar, the Centre Superintendent, alone. They being the main custodians of the sealed question paper bundles, were not present when the bank locker was opened by Kumar," the officer said.

Class 12 economics paper was leaked in handwritten format three days prior to the exam on March 26 and Class 10 maths paper was leaked five days prior to the exam on March 28, a Delhi Police official said.