Mumbai SSC exam paper leak: Suspects removed exam, centre codes from papers

“The person behind the leaks covered up these codes so that papers would not be traced back to one particular place. Several students who received the papers on their cellphones mistook them for model question papers from previous years,” said a senior police official.

Mumbai Police have so far arrested six men and detained eight juveniles after the History, Political Science and Information and Communications Technology questions papers were found in the possession of students at exam centres in Andheri West, Saki Naka and Kalyan last week.

The Amboli police station had last week arrested Firoz Abdul Majid Khan (45), Imran Shaikh (40), an employee at Khan’s coaching class in Mumbra, Rohit Singh (21), a private tutor working with Khan and Anwarul Hassan (22), an engineering student living in Madanpura, central Mumbai. Khan teaches Math at Kiddies Paradise High School in Mumbra and also runs Brilliant Tutorials nearby, where Shaikh is an employee.

Following the leak of the ICT question paper at St. Jude’s High School in Saki Naka, the police arrested private tutors Firoz Ansari (42) and Muzammil Kazi (27). The police have also taken Hassan and Khan into custody, claiming that Hassan passed on the ICT paper to his 17-year-old cousin, who in turn sent it to other students.

“We have traced the leak back to nine students in Saki Naka, Ghatkopar, Kurla and Kalyan. There is no monetary transaction involved. Each of them sent the paper to a friend who they knew was appearing for the exam,” said an official at Saki Naka police station. He added that the police is investigating the leak of the paper to its source.