The hunt for those involved in II Pre University Course (PUC) question paper leaks continued even on Friday with the Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths arresting a retired government school teacher, suspected to be the kingpin of the racket here. This comes a day after two people were arrested in Tumkur on Thursday when handwritten copies of ‘leaked’ biology papers were seized.
According to the police, the accused, Shiva Kumar Swamy, was picked up from Nandini Layout based on the tipoff from those arrested in Tumkur.
Tuition lobby
Significantly, this racket too has a tuition lobby angle to it. The accused was running a tutorial and lured students to join it by promising them that they would get the question papers at the end of the year. The police said that his “business” had been flourishing in the past three or four years and he had a wide network spread across the State.
Last year too, the then Department of Pre University Education Commissioner Rashmi V. had hinted at the private coaching class lobby behind the maths and physics paper leaks.
Modus operandi
The police also revealed a suspected collusion of the culprits with the question paper formation committee. This is where he used to get the questions, after which he would pass them on to his accomplices through SMS. They, in turn, would prepare the question papers and sell them, the police said and added that they were probing into this angle to ascertain who were involved from the inside.
Special squads
Meanwhile, the department announced a slew of precautionary measures to counter the alleged paper leaks.
A press note said that special squads will be formed to keep an eye on photocopy shops, cyber cafes and coaching centres. This, the note said, was in the backdrop of the alleged involvement of coaching centres being involved in the paper leaks of 2012.
Debarred
Meanwhile, on the third day of the II PUC exams 21 students were debarred for indulging in malpractices in the economics and geology exams — five were reported from Bijapur, three each from Belgaum and Gulbarga, two each from Koppal, Bagalkot and Raichur, and one each in Bangalore Rural, Gadag, Dharwad and Chickballapur (a case of impersonation).
Source : TH
