E-Paper
Recovery of exam papers blows lid off ‘parallel’ MP education board
The news caused a flutter among board officials, and various theories were floated as to how its examination papers ended up in another state. Some even wondered if a gang of fraudsters had taken them to Uttar Pradesh
Officials of the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) were shocked when the Uttar Pradesh police called them up to say that as many as ten bundles of Class 12 examination papers had been found stuffed in a sack near Kanpur district’s Fattepur village on February 18.
The board examinations in Madhya Pradesh were set to begin on March 1, exactly ten days later.
The news caused a flutter among board officials, and various theories were floated as to how its examination papers ended up in another state. Some even wondered if a gang of fraudsters had taken them to Uttar Pradesh.
The truth, however, turned out to be even more startling. “A closer scrutiny revealed that the paper actually belonged to a fake parallel education board operating from Gwalior,” an MPBSE official said on the condition of anonymity. “It called itself the Madhya Pradesh Senior Secondary Board, which sounds almost like the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education.”
According to the MPBSE official, the fake board was involved in everything from preparing the papers and conducting examinations to issuing marksheets and certificates to examinees. The racketeers would charge anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 per head for their “services”.
Their client base largely consisted of students who skipped the examinations due to poor preparation or the clampdown on the cheating mafia.
District education officer Ajay Neekhra said it was likely that the culprits have been in operation for many years in Madhya Pradesh and its neighbouring states. Two years ago, they had busted a fake board operating under the ‘Board of Senior Secondary, Madhya Bharat’ title.
MPBSE chairman SR Mohanty confirmed the development. “Barra police station house officer Bhaskar Mishra called us to say they had found leaked copies of the Class 12 chemistry paper in Kanpur. We immediately asked for a copy of the examination papers and checked its authenticity. That was when we realised that the board’s name on the question papers was different,” he said.
Further investigation revealed that many students had fallen for the fraud. “We did not issue an alert for fear that it would cause undue panic during examination time,” Mohanty said.
Gwalior collector Rahul Jain said the MPBSE has sought a probe into the matter. “It’s just a matter of time before we nab the culprits with the help of the police,” he added.
