CBSE paper leak: Google gives police whistleblower’s identity; five, including school principal, questioned by SIT

Sources in the SIT told The Sunday Express that one of the teams that is probing the economics paper leak had questioned several students, owners and employees of coaching centres in connection with the case. “During investigation, police came to know about one Taufeeq, who works with a coaching centre in Bawana. He had allegedly traded the question paper and solved answers for money,” police sources claimed, adding that he was detained on Friday night from Ghaziabad.

During questioning, Taufeeq disclosed before JCP (Crime) Alok Kumar, who is heading the SIT, that he was in constant touch with a teacher, school staff and a principal of a convent school on the Delhi-Haryana border.

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“Police immediately sent their teams to the village, where the school is situated. The suspects were taken to the Crime Branch office in Shakarpur on Saturday evening where they were questioned by senior officials,” police sources added.

After questioning all of them, police found that Taufeeq had allegedly got the question paper from one of them. In turn, he sold it to some students for Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000. “After questioning the teacher and school staff, SIT came to know that just to build a good reputation of their school, they had called their students at 9 am, before the exam time, and given them the purported question paper. Around 200 students from the school sat for the Class XII exam, and their examination centre was located in a nearby village,” police sources alleged.

The team also learnt about the alleged involvement of a CBSE official. “Senior officials of the SIT on Saturday night visited CBSE’s headquarters and informed senior officials about an employee’s possible role. They are also verifying the principal’s role, and taking legal opinion before making arrests,” sources said, adding that police have sought information about some CBSE employees.

Meanwhile, the SIT has received a reply from Google on the details it had sought pertaining to the e-mail address used to send a mail to the CBSE chairperson about the Class X mathematics paper being leaked.

Special CP (Crime) RP Upadhyay said they have received details of the e-mail address and the sender of the e-mail has been identified as the parent of a Class X student.

“We have zeroed in on six WhatsApp groups that figured in the trail of transmission of papers and they are being probed. So far, more than 60 people, including 53 students and seven teachers, have been questioned. Further investigations are underway,” he added.