Exam invigilators had leaked paper

Both convent teachers took Rs. 2,000-Rs. 5,000 from each student; papers routed to tutor on WhatsApp; CBSE official also suspended

Two school teachers and a coaching centre tutor from outer Delhi have been arrested over suspicion in their involvement in circulating the leaked CBSE Class 12 economics question paper on WhatsApp.

The two teachers, identified as Rishabh and Rohit, were exam invigilators who reportedly opened the question paper at 9:15 am and not at 9:45 am – the scheduled time -- and sent its pictures to the coaching centre tutor Tauqeer, who in turn circulated it on WhatsApp.

They received between Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 5,000 for the paper from each student it was sent to. The teachers' share of the money was 50 per cent, the rest went to the tutor. What provided the breakthrough was the location code, which was in the corner of the leaked paper, the images of which was circulated on Whatsapp. Location code indicates which school the paper has been sent to and the police tracked it to zero in on the school.

All three of them have been sent into police remand for two days where they will be questioned. Six WhatsApp groups that were involved in sharing the papers are also being looked into. In another development, the government has suspended the CBSE official who was in charge of the exam centre.

According to rules, the exam starts at 10 am but the students are allowed to write the paper even if they reach the centre by 11 am. Therefore, in this case since the economics paper was leaked by 9:15 am, many got nearly 90 minutes or one and half hour to mug up the answers.

Rishabh and Rohit are teachers of mathematics and physics, respectively, at Mother Khazani Convent School at Bawana. During their interrogation, both the teachers reasoned they wanted to build a good reputation of their school and hence conspired to leak the paper.