Class XII Board Paper Leak case: ‘Mastermind’ among 10 more held, say Police

Police identified the “mastermind” as Nirbhay Narayan Singh, the manager of Maharaji Devi Smarak Inter College in Bhimpura area of Ballia who allegedly tampered with the question papers at the school and circulated them to other accused who then sold the papers for Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000.

A statement issued by Ballia police on Sunday stated, “In the investigation so far, it has been found that Nirbhay Narayan Singh and Rajeev Prajapati, who owns a computer workshop, leaked the question paper. Prajapati then gave the paper to Avinash Gautam, an English teacher at Subhash Chandra Inter College, and it was solved by Gautam and Prajapati. The solved copy was then given to Nirbhay Narayan Singh, who then sold it for Rs 25,000-30,000 to three persons.”

“Nirbhay also gave the paper to other people. Prajapati scanned the paper with his mobile phone and circulated it on social media to other people in exchange for money. He has confessed. The leaked question paper was also found on his phone,” the police said.

The leak of one of the two sets of English paper had led to cancellation of the exam in 24 districts of the state on Wednesday. The state government ordered a probe by the Special Task Force and Chief Minister directed police to invoke the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against the accused.

Ballia Superintendent of Police Raj Karan Nayyar, meanwhile, said that seven teams were formed to solve the case. “It was a difficult case for us because the footprint of transactions on social media platforms and digital transactions were difficult to trace. We had to deploy a lot of resources. In the last four days, a lot of things have become clear and the rest of the details will also be shared soon,” said Nayyar.

He, however, refused to divulge details on the role of the three arrested journalists. “The investigating officer (IO) is still probing the case and it would be wrong to give out specifics right now. We will do it in the coming days once we conclude the case,” Nayyar said.

The three journalists – Ajit Ojha and Digvijay Singh of Amar Ujala newspaper, and Manoj Gupta of Rashtriya Sahara newspaper – have claimed that they were being framed for reporting on the paper leak. Police, however, have maintained they were arrested “based on their role”.

Journalists in the district have decided to hold a protest march on Monday against the arrest of their colleagues.