India: Police detain three accused of leaking state exam question paper

Ballia Police on Thursday imposed the National Security Act (NSA), 1980 provisions against three persons for their alleged involvement in the leak of the Uttar Pradesh state board’s Class 12 English question paper.

The three accused have been identified as Ravindra Nath Singh, Rajiv Pratap alias Raju and Nirbhay Narayan Singh. They were arrested by the police on April 3.

“It is noteworthy that the examination of English Intermediate Board of Secondary Education Prayagraj to be held on March 30 had to be cancelled in 24 districts due to the question paper leak on social media platforms. A case was registered in this regard at Police Station Bhimpura, Nagra following which the NSA provisions have been slapped against the accused,” the state police said in an official statement.

The police said that the main accused Nirbhay Narayan Singh, who is the manager of Maharani Devi Smarak Inter College, allegedly got the question paper printed and got it solved by two English teachers while selling the copies of the solved paper for Rs25,000 to Rs30,000 per student.

Singh and another accused Rajeev Prajapati also sent scanned copies of the question paper to other people on social media. The three accused took money from the students and received it in a bank account through Paytm transactions.

The examination was conducted in the other 51 districts on the same day while re-examination was held in 24 districts on April 13.