Cuttack, March 26: Crime branch of Odisha police today arrested three more persons — all officials of various residential colleges — in connection with the Plus Two question paper leak incident that had led to rescheduling of physics and chemistry exams for nearly 77,700 students.
The trio had received the physics questions from deputy secretary of the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Sambalpur zone, Debendra Behera, who was arrested on March 11 along with two others. He had struck a deal with some private colleges, including the Chaitanya College of Education in Sundergarh where his son was studying.
Chaitanya College secretary Rajendra Prasad Malla is one of the accused. The other two are Saroj Kumar Mohanty, 31, principal of Lambodar College of Science in Kalahandi and Akhaya Rath, 53, chairman of Om Maa Saraswati Institute of Science and Technology in Sundergarh.
In a related development, Orissa High Court today directed the state government to file a status report in the question paper leak case within four weeks. The division bench of Justice Pradip Mohanty and Justice S.K. Mishra issued the direction on a PIL seeking a CBI inquiry into the question paper episode.
Addressing reporters here, additional director-general of police (crime branch) B.K. Sharma said: “So far six persons have been arrested in connection with the case and we will continue to verify the involvement of other colleges in this connection.”
Sharma said Behera had distributed the photocopy of hand-written physics questions to the three residential colleges 12 hours prior to the exam scheduled on March 7. Moreover, Sambalpur-based Sandilya College of Science and Commerce chairman K.C. Barik and marketing agent Subash Barik had also been taken into custody. A lady lecturer of the same college acted as a whistle-blower, helping the crime branch crack the case.
“We have got evidence that Behera had charged Rs 10,000 per student to supply the questions beforehand,” Sharma said. He also said the deal had forged between Behera and officials of various colleges for the physics paper ranged between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh. The leak had forced the Plus Two council to order re-examination of the physics paper. Yesterday, the exam was conducted smoothly. The chemistry paper, scheduled to be held on March 9, was also postponed to March 30 after the question packet had been found tampered with at Mahalinga Anchalika College of Dharmagarh in Kalahandi district. The police arrested centre superintendent Bijay Jena and the college was de-recognised.
Later, the state government ordered for a crime branch probe following an uproar over the issue. A four-member team had begun investigation by interrogating council officials about the modalities of dispatch of question papers to various exam centres across the state.
