A deeper investigation revealed that Ambernath resident Feroz Abdul Majid Khan, 47, who worked as a maths teacher at Kiddies Paradise School in Mumbra was the main brain behind this leak, says Daya Nayak
Through sheer luck and a bit of alertness, a teacher blew the lid off the SSC paper leak racket. Police investigation on one hand revealed that the racket involved students and teachers, and on the other hand it brought to light the misuse of technology that helped students circulate the leaked papers to others, and the lacunae in handling the papers by the school management.
Complainant Sandhya Pawar, 27, a teacher at MVM Swami Muktanand High School in Andheri (W) played a crucial role in unearthing the paper leak racket.
On March 19, Around 10.35 am, the complainant saw three students in the school premises surfing their mobile phones and reading books. Finding their behaviour suspicious she confronted them which frightened the students. The teacher then took the mobile phone of one of the students, who was from a Jogeshwari-based school and found Social Science (73) and History-Political Science-Paper-1 question papers having N 246 code. The students were allowed to write their exams but the phone was confiscated.
WHATSAPP, INSTAGRAM USED TO LEAK PAPERS
“After completing the exam, the student told the school staff that one of his friends had shared the paper with him via Instagram around 10.26 am. They had created an Instagram group ‘Board Ke Imp’, which was later deleted,” said the officer.
“The boy from whose phone papers were found had received it from his common friends from Ambernath. A deeper investigation revealed that Ambernath resident Feroz Abdul Majid Khan, 47, who worked as a maths teacher at Kiddies Paradise School in Mumbra was the main brain behind this leak. Feroz also runs Brilliant Coaching Classes at Ambernath where 31 SSC students were enrolled,” Assistant Police Inspector Daya Nayak from Amboli Police Station said.
HOW THE PAPERS LEAKED?
A police source explained that Kiddies Paradise School was also an SSC examination centre. “Feroz was a conductor and used to get blocks of question papers by 9.15 am. He used to click photographs of the papers on his mobile phone and send it to Rohit Singh, 24, a science teacher at Brilliant Classes. Rohit used to distribute the leaked question papers and also give answers to students and help them prepare for the papers.”
Feroz used to charge Rs 5,000 for each paper. Rohit had claimed that this was the first time they had leaked papers. He also confessed of having leaked question papers of Maths, Geometry, Science I, Science II, and History.
LACUNAE IN THE SYSTEM
As per Zakiya Shaikh, principal of Kiddies Paradise School, Khan was made chief conductor, invigilator and handled the papers. As per rules, the papers should have been opened at 10.45 am in front of two students, but he flouted it.
Zakiya told police that her husband was authorised to collect papers, but the claim couldn’t be ascertained. He was not associated with the school, but used to visit Kalwa education department, collect the papers and bring them to the exam centre in an auto. Before declaring the school an SSC exam centre, nobody from the board inspected it. The school does not even have a CCTV facility.
PAST INSTANCES OF PAPER LEAK
February 2018: Five persons, including a class 12 student, were arrested by Bhoiwada police for allegedly leaking the Chemistry paper in Mumbai just before the HSC examination. The paper was leaked via WhatsApp.
November 2017: Amboli police arrested 10 persons, including a Kandivali based college official, for their alleged involvement in leaking the third-year BMS paper of the University of Mumbai via WhatsApp. Minutes before the exam, a student of an Andheri college was found with a copy of the ‘Marketing E-commerce and Digital Marketing’ paper. Police said the main accused Kalpesh Bagul, head of the technician department of Nirmala Memorial Foundation College in Kandivali downloaded the question papers from the e-mail sent by the Mumbai University. He forwarded it to others involved, who then sold each paper for Rs 10,000.
April 2017: Agripada police arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in leaking baseline test papers. These papers were of the Class 8 English and Mathematics third round baseline tests, which were supposed to be held in schools across the state. All of the arrested persons were in the business of photocopying. The trio were selling these documents at an exorbitant rate. In their statement they said that a couple of boys had left the papers there to get them photocopied and they had no role to play in it
May 2016: Bhandup police busted a gang that was instrumental in leaking Mumbai University papers. Eight MU employees were arrested for their alleged involvement in the racket. Explaining the functioning of the racket, an officer said, “Answer sheets arrived at the university through dispatch, which were then handled by clerks and custodians. Papers were then scanned. These students would be handed answer sheets that they filled up from home. The clerks would replace the blank sheets with the filled ones. The students used to message their seat numbers to the accused via WhatsApp.”
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