1,000 duplicate UP Board answers sheets recovered from Jaunpur press

VARANASI:At least 1,000 duplicate answers sheets of UP Board high school and intermediate examinations, scheduled to begin from February 6, were recovered from a printing press in Jogiapur area of Jaunpur, a police officer said.

The owner of the press has been arrested, he added.

This development comes amidst the state government move to seek help of UP Police’s Special Task Force (STF) for checking the copying mafia in 50 ‘sensitive’ districts. Station officer, Line Bazar police station, Mithilesh Mishra said inspector, crime branch, Vishwanath Tiwari received inputs that a press was involved in printing duplicate answer sheets of UP Board examinations.

“A police team raided the press and recovered 1,000 duplicate answer sheets. Owner of the press Rampalat Maurya was arrested,” he said. City magistrate Indrabhushan Verma, district inspector of schools Umesh Shukla and acting basic shiksha adhikari Chandrashekhar Yadav reached the spot and carried out an investigation.

Mishra said a case had been registered against the press owner under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (possessing counterfeit material), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Copyright Act.

Mishra said during interrogation Maurya revealed that he had received an order for printing 4,000 duplicate answer sheets for Maa Sharda Inter College, Badalpur, for Rs 20,000.

The police officer said further investigation was on to identify the man who placed the order for printing of duplicate answer sheets and how the sheets were to be used during the examinations.

He said a report had been sent to the city magistrate for seizing the printing press.

Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, during a video conference recently, had said the STF would be roped in for holding free and fair UP Board examinations. Sharma is also minister for secondary education.

“The STF will help in keeping the copying mafia away from examinations and also help in identifying culprits who, every year, tarnish the image of the Board by promoting use of unfair means. The government has made its stand clear that no unfair means would be tolerated and anyone found indulging in promoting the same would be dealt with strictly,” he said.