The Crime Branch (CB) on Tuesday arrested three more persons in connection with the Plus II Physics question paper leak. The arrested are principal of Lambodar College of Science, Kalahandi, SarojMohanty, secretary of Chaitanya College of Education, Sundargarh, Rajendra Prasad Malla and chairman of Om MaaSaraswati Institute of Science and Technology, Rajgangpur, Akhaya Kumar Rath.
ADG (CB) Bijay Sharma said Debendra Behera, suspended deputy secretary of Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) in Sambalpur, had entered into a deal with private colleges to provide them question papers for money. Speaking about the modus operandi, Sharma said Behera had designed two modules to charge the private colleges. He charged Rs 10,000 per student in some colleges while in some others, he charged Rs 1 lakh per question paper. However, Sharma refused to divulge the details of the financial transactions between Behera and staff of these three private colleges. “Investigation is still on and I cannot divulge all the details,” said Sharma.
Behera had provided Physics question papers to the colleges on March 6 on the eve of the examination. In order to avoid suspicion, handwritten question papers were delivered by hand to the private college authorities, the ADG said.
“Behera maintained adequate secrecy while sealing the deal. Neither fax nor mail was used to send the question papers. Behera ensured that the question paper was delivered to the college authorities by hand only,” said Sharma. Behera’s son was a student of Chaitanya College of Education, a private residential college located at Chikatmati in Sundargarh district. He had taken the Plus II examination this year. The CB officials suspect that some kind of favour might have been extended to this particular college by Behera.
The CB has not ruled out more arrests. “Investigation is still on and more arrests are likely to be made in the days to come,” said Sharma.
Earlier, the CB had arrested three persons, including Behera. The other two are chairman of Sandilya College of Science and Commerce in Sambalpur Kartik Barik and his associate Subas Barik. They had bought Physics question paper from Behera paying Rs 3 lakh and even the English question paper was dictated to them over phone.
