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UPTET-2021 cancelled after reports of paper leak, 26 arrested
The state government cancelled the UP Teachers’ Eligibility Test (UPTET-2021) scheduled on Sunday after the recovery of question papers from 26 people arrested in five districts of the state hours before the exam on Saturday night, said additional chief secretary, basic education, Deepak Kumar and UP Police additional director general (ADG), law and order, Prashant Kumar at a joint press conference in Lucknow
The state government cancelled the UP Teachers’ Eligibility Test (UPTET-2021) scheduled on Sunday after the recovery of question papers from 26 people arrested in five districts of the state hours before the exam on Saturday night, said additional chief secretary, basic education, Deepak Kumar and UP Police additional director general (ADG), law and order, Prashant Kumar at a joint press conference in Lucknow.
They said the state government had decided that the exam would now be conducted within a month and the examinees would not have to pay extra fees and fill fresh forms for it.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath issued a stern warning against those involved in the UPTET paper leak and said the National Security Act (NSA) and the Gangsters Act will be invoked against the culprits and their properties will be seized. The chief minister said this while launching projects worth ₹200 crore in Deoria.
“Those who have committed this act should listen that cases will be registered against them under the Gangsters Act and the National Security Act,” he said, according to news agency PTI.
Further, in a tweet, the chief minister said, “Instructions were issued to arrest the gang leaking UPTET paper. Prompt action is being taken by identifying the culprits and a case against them under the Gangsters Act. Those who play with the future of our young sisters and brothers will not be spared at any cost. The people responsible for the inconvenience caused to them will definitely be punished.”
Yogi Adityanath also said, “The state government stands with UPTET candidates. The examination will be conducted in a transparent manner within a month. No additional fees will be charged from any candidate. The candidates who were appearing for the examination will be given free travel facility in commuting by UPSRTC buses.”
The government is determined to conduct the examination in a fair and transparent manner, the chief minister tweeted.
Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay, secretary of Exam Regulatory Authority (ERA), UP, headquartered in Prayagraj, also confirmed the cancellation of the exam.
UP basic education minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi said, “UP STF has been asked to probe it and orders have been issued for lodging of the FIR in this connection. The culprits would be identified and strict action would be taken against them.”
Sharing further details, the ADG said 16 people were arrested from Prayagraj, four from Lucknow, three from Shamli, two from Ayodhya, and one from Kaushambi in simultaneous raids by UP Special Task Force (STF) on a tip-off about the paper leak and an alert about solvers’ gangs. He said four of the solvers arrested in Prayagraj are from Bihar.
The ADG said the examination was scheduled in two shifts (10 am-12.30 pm and 2.30 pm to 5 pm) at 2736 centres across 75 districts of the state and as many as 19,99,418 examinees were supposed to appear in it.
Two separate modus operandi
The ADG said the arrests exposed two different modus operandi for compromising the UPTET examination. He said people from Prayagraj and Ayodhya are members of the solvers’ gang and they arranged proxy examinees for the original candidates in return for money while those arrested in Lucknow, Shamli and Kaushambi were involved in the question paper leak.
Prashant Kumar said photocopies of question papers were recovered from the four arrested people in Lucknow and Meerut while one arrested person in Kaushambi had received hand-written questions on WhatsApp. He said those arrested in Meerut had arranged 10 copies of question papers for ₹5 lakh through some people in Mathura around 6.30 pm-7 pm on Saturday and they were selling it to examinees for ₹50,000 per head. He said 60 examinees were in touch with the gang for the question papers.
Papers leaked before reaching exam centres
He said some photocopies of question papers were recovered from people arrested in Lucknow, Shamli and Kaushambi and were found to be original when cross-checked with the examination agency. He said the question papers were leaked before they were distributed at different examination centres across the state so there is a possibility that the paper was leaked at the examination agency level or at the treasury where it was kept before distribution.
The ADG said neither the agency nor any individual will be spared if found involved in the leaking of the question papers. Cell phones and some mobile numbers have also been recovered from the arrested people and police are trying to ascertain at which point the paper was leaked, he added. He also said the STF is investigating the matter and more arrests are likely.
In Prayagraj, those arrested also included an assistant teacher on whose cell phone solved question papers of UPTET-2021 were found.
The alleged gang members in Prayagraj were arrested from examination centres at Jhunsi, Naini and Georgetown, officials said.
Circle officer, STF, DSP Navendu Kumar said STF Prayagraj was on alert after receiving information that solver gangs were active during UPTET examinations. Through surveillance and other means, raids were carried out in Jhunsi, Naini and Georgetown areas from where 16 people were arrested, he added.
The eight people arrested from Naini area of Prayagraj were identified as the kingpin of the gang Rajendra Patel of Raniganj area of Pratapgarh, Niraj Shukla of Pratapgarh, Sunny Singh, Tinku Singh, Shital Kumar, Dhananjay Kumar, Kunain Raza of Gaya district in Bihar and Shivdayal Pandey of Aurangabad in Bihar.
The solver gang members arrested in Jhunsi area were identified as Anurag of Sonbhadra who is a solver, UPTET aspirant Abhishek Singh of Chitrakoot and Satya Prakash Singh of Shankargarh. Satya Prakash is an assistant teacher at a primary school in Kariakhurd village. Solved question papers of UPTET were allegedly found on his WhatsApp.
The five people arrested from the Georgetown area of Prayagraj were identified as Chaturbhuj Singh of Koraon area of Prayagraj, solvers Sanjay Singh, Ajay Kumar, Brahma Shankar Singh of Koraon and gang member Sunil Kumar Singh of the Khiri area.
Meanwhile, deputy SP of STF (Meerut circle) Brojesh Singh said the STF arrested three persons from Shamli on Sunday morning who were acting as carriers to provide leaked UPTET papers to their candidates in exchange for money. Singh said the arrested persons are Manish and Dharmendra of Shamli Kotwali area and Ravi of Kandhla town.
“They were arrested with copies of the leaked paper and (were) going to distribute (it) to candidates in exchange for ₹50,000 from each of them,” said Singh and added that the arrested persons were being interrogated to collect inputs about people involved in their network.
UPTET is a state-level exam conducted once a year to enable candidates to gain eligibility to teach primary (Classes 1-5) and upper primary (Classes 6-8) in schools of the Uttar Pradesh government.
UPTET exam is conducted in two shifts for two papers: 1 and 2. UPTET Paper 1 is conducted for candidates who plan to become teachers of Classes 1-5 while Paper 2 is for candidates who aim to become teachers of Classes 6-8.
Candidates who wish to apply for both primary and upper primary schools need to appear in both papers. Both the UPTET papers are conducted on the same day in offline mode as pen-and-paper based tests.
