Exam papers found in scrap yard

Bihar school reported as many as 43,000 evaluated Grade 10 answer sheets missing

Around 43,000 evaluated answer sheets of Grade 10 students, which had gone missing from the strong room of a government school in Bihar, have been found dumped in a scrap shop, police said.

The discovery came to light after a special team of police investigating the mysterious disappearance of thousands of answers sheets arrested a scrap shop owner, Pappu Kumar Gupta, on Friday.

During interrogation, the scrap shop owner reportedly told the police that he had bought the answer scripts for Rs8,500 from the school peon about a fortnight back.

Weighty bargain

“The school peon called me up on my cell phone and asked me to buy scraps,” Gupta said.

“I paid Rs8,500 for buying these copies,” he reportedly told the police, adding that the purchased answer-sheets added up to 121 kilograms.

The police have also arrested the driver of the vehicle in which the answer sheets were transported, Santosh Kumar, and the school peon, Chhatu Singh, in connection with the sale of the exam papers.

The written scripts were sold barely days before the education department authorities were to announce the result of the Grade 10 examination, raising suspicions. The evaluated answer-sheets had gone mysteriously missing from the strong room of the SS Girls’ Senior Secondary High School located in Gopalgnaj district.

The entire story came to light early this week when the Bihar School Examination Board authorities sought the evaluated answer sheets of the students who figured among top 25 to review their marking before announcing results.