‘College may have leaked paper to own pupils an hour before exam’

The Unit 5 team with the five accused at the police commissioner’s office on Thursday

Crime Branch officials believe that the Ahmednagar-based Matoshri Bhagubai Bambare Agricultural and Science College allegedly leaked the HSC maths paper to its students an hour prior to the exam in order for them to come out with flying colours. The college teachers and staff allegedly sold the papers to certain parents for Rs 10,000.

A court in south Mumbai has remanded the five accused, including the principal of the institution and two teachers, in five-day police custody. Unit 5 of the Mumbai Crime Branch took the suspects into custody from Ahmednagar on Wednesday night. According to sources, the crime branch has discovered that the college broke the seal an hour before the exams and sold it to a small number of students. The police have also discovered that some of the students of the college itself received the maths question paper way before the exam was conducted.

"The college may have leaked information to some of its students in order to increase their percentage before selling it to a select group of parents whose children are affiliated to other colleges," an officer told midday. "We are looking into every aspect of the case; We're confident that the same college has leaked the information," said DCP (Detection) Prashant Kadam. Bhau Saheb Amrute, the college's 54-year-old principal, and Kiran Dighe and Sachin Mahanur, two teachers, were first detained by the crime branch while a college driver and Archana Bhamre, a 23-year-old member of the college administration, were later similarly nabbed.

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Crime branch sources say that it appears Dighe broke the seal with the help of others and transmitted it to one of her relatives, receiving Rs 10,000 in return. According to protocol, the principal is in charge of the papers once they arrive at a college, and if the seals are broken, he must take legal action. "Instead of raising the red flag, he signed on the seal to confirm that nothing had happened," an officer said.

The crime branch is now probing the amount the teachers and principal had received and the number of students who benefited from the leak. The officials have also said that they are probing the role of HSC board officials to rule out their involvement. The HSC board at Ahmednagar is responsible for distributing the paper to colleges. Sources have said the college in question took papers an hour before the prescribed time on the pretext that their examination centre was 20 kilometres from the HSC board office.