Malad teacher held for leaking HSC Chemistry paper to group of students

The crime was revealed when a suspicious student’s mobile phone was checked. Representation pic/Pradeep Dhivar

A 30-year-old teacher from Malad has been arrested by the Vile Parle police on Tuesday for allegedly leaking the HSC Chemistry paper to a group of students on Saturday morning. He allegedly sent the question paper in a students' WhatsApp group of 17 people. A 17-year-old student who reached the exam centre late was found suspicious by the principal and police personnel present there. They had checked her mobile phone and found the Chemistry question paper on it. The police are probing the 16 other students in the WhatsApp group.

The accused teacher, identified as Mukesh Yadav, also takes tuitions for SSC and HSC students in Malad West. According to the police the incident occurred on Saturday morning at a Vile Parle college. The investigation officer in the case said, "When the college principal and a police constable at the centre asked the student why she was late, she replied it was due to traffic. The principal and constable found her behaviour suspicious and asked for her mobile phone to check. She refused to give it."

However, the principal insisted on the constable checking the phone. The constable found the Chemistry question paper in the WhatsApp group. "In a chat we found that the accused teacher Mukesh Yadav had sent answers to this student. We also found that all answers were in short with important points. We are trying to find the student who entered a classroom with her/his mobile phone and clicked a photo of the question paper and sent it to Yadav on WhatsApp. The teacher deleted the chats," the IO said.

Speaking to mid-day, Senior Inspector Sanjay Narvekar of Vile Parle police station said, "We have arrested the accused Mukesh Yadav under various sections of the University Act for sharing a question paper with a student and helping her to pass the exam illegally. We are checking the students who are in the WhatsApp group chat where the question paper was shared by Yadav. Yadav was produced in court and sent to jail custody."