The chancellor of a leading private university in Meghalaya was arrested from his Guwahati residence early on Friday for alleged examination-related malpractices.
Apart from University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) chancellor Mahbubul Hoque, five others associated with the CBSE-affiliated Central Public School in Patherkandi under south Assam’s Sribhumi district have been arrested in connection with the alleged malpractices that surfaced after the Class 12 physics examination held at the school on Friday, police said.
Hoque, who has been at loggerheads with Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over the past few months, was picked up from his Ghoramara residence in Guwahati around 1.30am and taken to the Panbazar police station and then to Sribhumi about 350km away. The Education Research and Development Foundation founded by Hoque runs the school and the UGC-affiliated USTM on the outskirts of Guwahati.
The police said 274 candidates had appeared for the Class XII final physics examination of which 214 were enrolled with the USTM but they took the exam from the Sribhumi school along with the 41 permanent students.
The students were allegedly assured help to clear their exams with good marks. The police are yet to reveal the charges against the six accused, including the principal and two teachers of the Patherkandi school. Hoque said he has not been provided copy of the FIR and the school was in the news because it had “not allowed the candidates to cheat in the exam”.