Calcutta, April 26: The Criminal Investigation Department today scanned records of some students who had surprised their teachers by clearing the Joint Entrance Examination (JEM) last year.

These students had passed out of schools in Midnapore’s Sabong and Ghatal, where a question paper leak was detected last Saturday.

“The teachers of three schools told us that they never expected some of the students to get through the examination. They said they were extremely surprised when the students not only cleared the exam but also did well,” a CID officer said.

“The results of these students in school examinations had been very poor. Their academic track record shows that they somehow managed to get the marks required for promotion.”

The sleuths decided to visit the schools after interrogating Manas Patra, an employee of the government-run Saraswati Press, where manuscripts of question papers are sent for printing.

Patra was arrested from Howrah on Wednesday.

“He was attached to the printing unit’s confidential proof-reading section and had access to the manuscripts of this year’s JEM question papers. He admitted that he had passed on the final draft of the papers to Arun Choudhury, his cousin in Ghatal,” said P. Nirajnayan, special inspector-general, CID.

Choudhury was caught when he turned at the Ghatal bus stand with his agent, Mihir Dandapat, to sell photocopies of the question papers to policemen posing as customers.

The police came to know about Patra while interrogating Choudhury.

Patra insisted that he had not leaked papers last year.

“But we do not believe him. He was transferred to the proof-reading section from the technical department one-and-a-half years ago after he met with an accident.

“We have enough reason to believe that he committed the same crime last year. And that is why we decided visit the schools in Ghatal today,” an officer said.

The police said they had the names of a few students who had cleared last year’s JEM with the help of question papers leaked by Patra.

“Last year, 14 students from a school in Ghatal and 12 from another cleared the JEM. However, the performance of students from these schools in the exam in the past has been dismal. How is it that they suddenly managed to do so well last year?” an officer asked.

The sleuths have come to know that the father of a JEM candidate from Ghatal had approached Choudhury for copies of this year’s question paper in the first week of April.

“We arrested Choudhury before he could sell the papers to him,” said an officer.

The CID has summoned the candidate’s father to its Bhabani Bhawan headquarters in Calcutta.

“He said we would come on Monday,” an officer said.

“We are also zeroing in on some teachers in Ghatal who knew Patra.”