Three Std IX students, who also stole answer sheets, had planned to write correct answers at home and swap them with sheets in exam hall next day; a friend they told some questions to led police to them
Scared of failing their final examinations, three school boys decided they would resort to stealing the question paper along with some answer sheets from their school and later swap the answer sheets the next day in the examination hall. Police caught up with them after the principal registered a case the next day and a friend told on them.
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Confident that they would fail in the examination on Monday, three Std IX students broke into their school on Sunday and stole the question paper and answer sheets. They had planned to write the answers at home and swap the answer books in the exam hall the next day. Illustrations/Amit Bandre
The incident occurred in a school in Shivaji Nagar at Govandi where the three Std IX students studied. According to the Shivaji Nagar police, where the case was registered, the boys were sure they would not pass in their final exam and would have to repeat a year.
After the principal registered a case, police got a list of academically weak students and started questioning them
Hence, they decided to break into their school on Sunday to get hold of the question paper for the exam scheduled for the next day i.e. Monday. Police said the students also stole blank answer sheets and planned to write correct answers on them and swap them with the sheets handed out in the examination hall.
One of them said the three boys had told him some questions from the exam. Police picked up the trio from the examination hall on Wednesday
The next day, seeing the premises broken into, the principal notified the police. An officer from Shivaji Nagar police station said, “The incident came to light on Monday after which the school principal promptly registered a case in the morning and, accordingly, changed the question papers for the exam.”
Failed crime
During investigations, police got a list of academically weak students from the school and started making inquiries with these students. One of them gave cops the information they needed.
The officer further added, “The trio had given a list of questions to one of their friends, who was also weak in studies. When we questioned him, he gave us the names of the three students who he felt might have committed the crime.”
A police team was dispatched to the school on Wednesday and the three boys were picked up from the examination hall. Balasaheb Jadhav, senior police inspector, Shivaji Nagar police station, confirmed that the case had been registered and said that the investigation was still going on.
The accused boys have been booked under Sections 454 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking), 457 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night), 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They have been sent to the Matunga remand home.