Mumbai: Posing as scrap dealer, man steals 516 SSC papers

The school from where the SSC papers were stolen

Pretending to be a scrap dealer, a man entered the principal's cabin of Isra Vidyalaya in Dahisar east and stole 516 unchecked answer sheets of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination. The incident happened within 10-15 minutes, when the principal was not at his cabin.

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Papers of three subjects
Following the incident, which took place on April 3, the school management registered a complaint with Dahisar police station. The stolen papers include answer sheets of three subjects - History (150), Science (150) and Sanskrit (216). The moment principal Narendra Pathak realised that the answer scripts were missing, he informed the Maharashtra State Board.

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Speaking to mid-day, Pathak said, "It was done just within 10-15 minutes, when I was away from my cabin. Someone has been tracking my movements to get to this level. Such an incident has happened for the first time in my eight years of service as a principal. Whoever is involved will be punished, even if it is someone close to me. There is clearly some insider's hand in it." He also said that the school administration was fully cooperating with the police in the investigation.

Clever move
Pathak further said, "People who saw the culprit walking into my office tried to confirm his identity. But he told them that he was there to collect scrap papers. Cleverly he left the checked papers and picked up the bundle of unchecked ones. The remaining bundles have been submitted to the moderator."

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When contacted, senior inspector from Dahisar police station Subhash Sawant said, "A case has been registered under section 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc) of IPC. Further investigation into the matter is on."