Bengaluru: May 12: The II PUC Chemistry question papers were leaked from the Hangal sub-treasury in Haveri district, with a second division assistant (SDA) providing the keys of the strongroom to the nephew of the prime suspect, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has said.
Agasimani gave him the keys of the strongroom where the question paper bundle was kept.
On the night of March 19, two days before the exam was held, Kiran opened the seal of the bundle, photographed the paper on his mobile phone and resealed it.
He gave him the money on the spot and left for Tumakuru. But the image of the paper was not good.
So, Kiran jotted down the questions on a sheet of paper, photographed it and sent it by WhatsApp to a close circle of friends, which included Obalaraju, the personal assistant of Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil, Manjunath, a physical education teacher at a private school in Vijayanagar, and another man named Rudrappa.
The select few then sold the question paper to eager students for hefty sums. Roughly 3,000 students had the question paper before the exam was held on March 21, a senior officer in the CID said.
As the leak emerged and the government announced re-exam on March 31, Kiran decided to get the paper again.
He contacted Agasimani again, paid him Rs one lakh and got the paper on the night of March 29. Thus, the paper leaked for a second time, hugely embarrassing the government and almost costing the Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar his job.
Acting swiftly after the first leak, the CID arrested Manjunath, Obalaraju, Rudrappa and two others. But Kiran didn't know about Manjunath's arrest. He sent him the second paper too by WhatsApp. The CID, which had Manjunath's mobile phone, began tracking Kiran.
The deft modus operandi of the paper leak was revealed by Kiran whom the CID arrested from a farmhouse in Tumakuru on Tuesday. He is in police custody for 10 days.
The CID sleuths also arrested Agasimani, a native of Uttara Kannada who was living in Adoor, Haveri district. Agasimani had injured himself during a fight with a relative over a property dispute.
The CID got the doctor's permission to bring him to Bengaluru for further investigation. The sleuths also examined the sub-treasury in Hangal. A CID officer said more arrests were likely as the investigation had been intensified.
2 held in Haveri for paper leak
Santosh Agasimani, the second division assistant of the Hangal sub-treasury, was arrested on Tuesday, in connection with the II?PU chemistry paper leak, reports DHNS?from Hangal, Haveri.
Agasimani was picked from a hospital in Haliyal, where he was undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in a domestic fight.
There were also rumours that the CID?officials arrested a man from Akki Alur in the taluk. The suspect is said to be a friend of Agasimani. It is said that a senior official in Haveri is also involved in the question paper leak. The suspects would take pictures of the question paper kept in the sub-treasury on their phones and send it to all parts of the state, a day before the exam.
Comments
Add new comment