Acting principals of two schools were arrested for allegedly leaking the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) examination paper for the post of primary school teachers (MCD) by giving it to ‘agents’ a few minutes before the examination began. Police sources said the two were posted as vice-principals in Delhi government schools in Haiderpur and Shalimar Bagh. “Both arrested persons were acting principals for more than three years and their schools were centres for the DSSSB exam. Their arrest was made late Thursday night after several rounds of questioning,” the sources said. The examination was held on October 29. So far, 18 persons, including a 52-year-old physical education teacher Virendra Mathur — who was a state-level weightlifter and represented Delhi in the 68-kg category around 30 years ago — have been arrested. “During questioning, Mathur and an arrested agent, Ajay, told police that they received the paper key a few minutes before the examination from the arrested vice-principals,” police sources claimed. The investigation officer (IO) later summoned the vice-principals and asked them to join the probe. Police suspect there is a possibility that they were previously involved with Mathur, who allegedly helped students cheat in various competitive examinations, such as MTS, railways, bank PO and DSSSB, in exchange for money. Police are probing their role and have taken them into custody after producing them before a Delhi court Friday. “They initially tried to mislead the IO after claiming that they never met Ajay and Mathur, and also tried to implicate one of their relatives. But they broke down after sustained questioning and admitted to their crime. They disclosed before police that they sent the paper keys to Ajay through WhatsApp, who in turn forwarded it to Mathur,” a senior officer claimed, adding that they were paid Rs 2 lakh. As reported by The Indian Express on October 31, eight people were arrested from Prahladpur village when they were sitting in a government school playground and solving the DSSSB paper, passing information over the phone. The arrests were made by the anti-auto theft squad (AATS) of west district. The accused told police that a government employee, working as a physical training inspector lured them by promising Rs 2 lakh. The case was then transferred to the Crime Branch, who came to know of Mathur’s alleged involvement. “Mathur allegedly approached the candidates and struck a deal for Rs 12 lakh each. He gave them Bluetooth devices stuck inside a pendant and a microphone shaped like a medical tablet. The person solving the paper would get the questions via WhatsApp,” an officer said.
