Delhi Police have zeroed in on three culprits — a teacher of a private school, a clerk and a support staff — from Himachal Pradesh for leaking the CBSE Class 12 Economics paper. All the three have been arrested by a Special Investigation Team of Delhi on Saturday.
The Economics paper was leaked in handwritten format two days prior to the exam held on March 26, forcing the CBSE to cancel the exam and re-hold it on April 25, causing much uproar in the country by students and parents.
Special Commissioner of Delhi Police R.P. Upadhyaya told media that the SIT has interrogated more than 70 people, including ‘WhatsApp’ admins, school teachers, ground staff, students and others in the case and finally reached its origin from a private school in Himachal Pradesh.
“It traced the transmission of the leak, ncluding its point of origin and who all were the beneficiaries and finally, on the basis of crucial clues and leads, the arrests were made from Himachal Pradesh,” said Upadhyaya.
The investigators had collected all the deleted chats and contexts shared by the group members and the Whatsapp admins with the help of the ‘Whatsapp’ Headquarters in California in US. All the deleted conversation was revived to help crack the case, he said.
The CBSE academic unit at Rouse Avenue was alerted about the leak on March 26 when it received a blank envelope containing some sheets of handwritten answers of Economics paper, just few hours before the exam commenced. For paucity of time to authenticate the leak, the exam was allowed to continue but once it was found that the paper was leaked, the Board has cancelled it and ordered a re-test.
In 2014 too, the physics paper of Class 12 was leaked and was published by a news website in the North East but CBSE found its reach not wide enough to order a re-test.