HSC paper leak: Hunt on for board clerk who gave question papers

Two teams went to Ahmednagar to trace him after he failed to turn up for questioning despite summoning him.

Mumbai: The crime branch has launched a manhunt for a clerk working with the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education after he had allegedly defied prevailing rules and handed over question paper sets to the examination centre at Ahmednagar-based college and the runner of the same institute.

“Under the prevailing rules, runners appointed by colleges could not collect the question paper sets from the board centres for the same college where he or she works and equally, the board staff cannot handover the question paper sets to the runner marked to his or her own college,” said a police officer. (Image for representation)

“Under the prevailing rules, runners appointed by colleges could not collect the question paper sets from the board centres for the same college where he or she works and equally, the board staff cannot handover the question paper sets to the runner marked to his or her own college,” said a police officer.

“Since the clerk at Ahmednagar centre acted in contravention of the rule, he was summoned for questioning, but did not turn up and has become untraceable,” he added.

Two teams went to Ahmednagar to trace him after he failed to turn up for questioning despite summoning him.

As of now, the police have arrested a total of six accused connected to the junior college, including one of the college trustees, Akshay Bhambare, his sister Archana Bhambare, college principal Bhausaheb Amrute, teachers Kiran Dighe and Sachin Mahanor and driver Vaibhav Tarte. All of them are presently in judicial custody.

The crime branch has questioned over 25 people, including teachers, staff members and students from the college.

An FIR was registered at Shivaji Park police station on March 4 after a class 12 student was caught copying in the maths paper at an examination centre in Dadar. He was allegedly found using a mobile handset for copying, and after he was grilled, he revealed that he had received portions of the maths paper at 10.17 am, 43 minutes before the scheduled exam time.