HSC Paper Leak: Navi Mumbai police arrest 4 more, including school trustee & clerk
4 more people, including a trustee and head clerk of Mount Mary school were arrested in connection with the HSC paper leak. Picture Courtesy: PTI
Four more persons, including a school trustee, were arrested on Saturday by Navi Mumbai Police allegedly in connection with the HSC Board exam question paper leak case.
The others arrested include a head clerk and teachers in a private coaching class and a junior college, the official said. Earlier, police had arrested four suspects in this case.
The trustee of Palghar Mount Mary School Anand Kamat (43), head clerk Ganesh Rane (30), owner of a private tuition class Nikhil Rane (29) and a teacher at junior college, Nallasopara Vinesh Dhotre (27), were arrested in the early hours of Saturday.
During investigation it was revealed that the question papers were leaked from Mount Mary School in Palghar, police said, adding that a pair of scissors and custodian centre’s number, which were visible in the images of the leaked papers, led them to the source of the leak.
The school received question papers around 30 minutes before the exam was about to begin. However, before it could be distributed to students, the trustee and clerk opened the bundle and took pictures.
“Kamat and Rane clicked photos of the question paper and sent it to Nikhil Rane who then shared it with Dhotre who forwarded and collected money from students of different groups on the messaging application,” Navi Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale said.
They charged students Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 from each student, said police. The deal of leaking question papers of Science and Commerce stream was fixed at Rs 20,000 respectively, they added.
Two separate offences were registered against unknown persons at Vashi Police Station after question papers of Marathi and Secretarial Practise (SP) subject’s were leaked on March 2 and 4 respectively, Senior Inspector of Vashi Police Station, Ajaykumar Landge, said.
During the investigation Vashi Police had identified the group on messaging application through which the question papers were circulated, he added.
College students Azharuddin Shaikh (20), Rahul Bhaskar (22), repeater student of HSC Shaikh Mohd Aman Mohd Islam (19) and a private class teacher Suresh Jha (26) were arrested earlier, the official said.
During their questioning, police got the leads and a team led by inspector Chetan Kakde arrested the four accused from Virar, he added. They were remanded to police custody till March 18, said Joint Commissioner of Police, Navi Mumbai, Madhukar Pandey said.
Apart from Marathi, Secretarial Practise, Physics, Mathematics and Statistics papers, the question paper for Book Keeping and Accountancy was also leaked on Friday.
A separate FIR pertaining to the leak was registered in Mumbai the same day.
“We are investigating whether the same gang is involved in other cases of HSC exam paper leak, which are registered earlier in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai,” he added.
Related: A complete roundup of everything that transpired since the first paper leaked on WhatsApp
