Bhavnagar paper leak: Principal, 2 students in 5-day custody

Galani’s arrest came more than 24 hours after he was detained following a complaint by MKBU registrar Kaushik Bhatt on Sunday. Students Ajay Ladumor and Vivek Makwana of GLKCCM, were also arrested on Tuesday evening.

“We formally arrested the three at 6 pm on Tuesday after their reports for Covid-19 tests returned negative,” PD Parma, inspector of Neelam Baug police station said.

The FIR registered in connection with the incident also names another student Srushti Borda.

According to the FIR, Galani illegally tore open a packet of question paper of subject Finance Account XII (Management Accounting II) for semester VI of the B.Com course hours before the examination was to begin at 3.30 pm on Saturday.

He then clicked photos of the question paper on his mobile phone and handed his phone over to Borda, a B.Com student, who in turn, asked Vivek Makwana to click photos of the question papers from Galani’s phone.

“Borda wanted to send a copy of the question paper to her friend Ladumor. But as she didn’t have a phone and asked Makwana to do it on her behalf,” Parmar said.

However, Makwana didn’t have Ladumor’s contact number. “Therefore, he shared photos of the question paper clicked from the principal’s phone to his friends Yashpalsinh Gohil and Rahul Dangar so that they would eventually reach Ladumor. However, the paper started circulating on social media,” said Parmar, adding Ladumor got the paper through the other accused.

MKBU registrar said that to prevent leak of question papers, the university had adopted the system of e-mailing password protected soft copies of question papers to examination cetres minutes before the scheduled time of examination. But the question paper for Finance Account XII (Management Accounting II) subject ran into six to seven pages.

“Thus being a lengthy question paper, it was not possible for colleges recognised as examination centres to print it in time if we were to e-mail them its password-protected soft copies,” Bhatt told The Indian Express.

The registrar further said that they are waiting for the police to ascertain the extent of leak to declared the examination conducted on April 1 as null.