College manager, teacher among 11 more arrested
Nexus of private college managers, principals, teachers and coaching operators behind the paper leak
LUCKNOW: After arresting 11 more people, including manager of a private inter college and a school teacher in the last 24 hours, the UP police on Sunday claimed to have unravelled the nexus behind the UP Board class 12 English paper leak case that took place recently.
Police officials said eight people, including the college manager, were arrested in Rasda area of Ballia, while three others, including the teacher, were arrested from Ballia’s Sikandarpur area.
The number of arrests in the case has now gone up to 46, including three scribes and the Ballia district inspector of schools (DIoS) Brajesh Kumar Mishra, since Wednesday. All the arrests made so far are from different areas of east UP’s Ballia district, which has been the centre of this paper leak case.
A press note shared by Ballia police stated the recent arrests included three key accused Nirbhay Narayan Singh, who is the manager of private inter college, the school teacher of English subject Avinash Gautam and a computer institute operator Rajiv Prajapati and eight others.
It further stated that so far four inter colleges’ managers, three principals, 10 teachers, five private coaching institute operators and three college clerks have been arrested in the matter since Wednesday.
A senior police official further stated that the key accused in the case were Nirbhay Narayan Singh, Rajiv Prajapati, Avinash Gautam and three others -Anand Narayan Chauhan alias Mulayam Chauhan, his brother Brijesh Chauhan and a relative Manish Chauhan. He said the question paper was compromised by Nirbhay Narain Singh, who was given the paper for the exam in his college.
The official said Singh shared the paper with Rajiv Prajapati, who in turn shared it with Avinash Gautam. And Gautam, with help of Mulyam Chauhan, his brother and relative solved the question paper and started selling it to students for ₹30,000 per head through WhatsApp contacts and their local links.
He said the money transaction, in return of providing the solved question paper, was confirmed through their bank accounts and e-wallet transactions.
The UP Board examination paper was leaked on Wednesday, which led to cancellation of the exam in 24 districts, including Ballia. The cancelled exam will now be held on April 13, government officials had announced earlier.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the special task force (STF) of UP police to investigate the matter. Yogi also asked officials to slap the National Security Act (NSA) on those found involved in the matter.
On Wednesday itself, the police had lodged three separate FIRs at the Ballia city kotwali, Nagra and Sikandarpur police stations in this regard. Besides, an STF team began investigation of the case.