New Delhi, April 11
With the arrest of two persons, including a medical student of Nagpur, the Crime Branch has busted a gang involved in the question paper leak of All-India Pre-Medical Test — 2004 organised by the CBSE. The exam, which was scheduled for April 11, was cancelled after CBSE Chairman, Delhi, Pavnesh Kumar was informed by the Crime Brach officials in this regard.

The leaked question papers of physics and chemistry were found perfectly matching with the original ones.

Those arrested were identified as Rakesh Kumar Verma (26), resident of Jharkhand and Vikas Verma (23), resident of Agra.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) B K Gupta said the sleuths received information that the question papers of physics and chemistry had been leaked and accordingly a raid was conducted at B-51, New Ashok Nagar. During the raid the sleuths detained as many as 13 candidates (eight boys and five girls) along with their parents apart from the accused Rakesh and Vikas. Among the 13 candidates seven of them belonged to Delhi and the rest belonged to other states. During questioning, the parents admitted that they came to know about the paper leak through word of mouth and also through some advertisements.

Mother of one candidate told the sleuths that six months back she came across an advertisement for ‘spot admission’ in a local newspaper in Ganga Nagar. When she responded to the advertisement and met the person concerned, he reportedly asked the woman to leave her contact number. She was also asked to contact others who were interested in securing admissions of their children to professional courses.

Mr Gupta said the woman was contacted by the person on April 8 and was told to bring her child along with others to New Ashok Nagar on April 10. Accordingly, when they reached New Ashok Nagar, the Crime Branch sleuths raided the place and detained them.

During interrogation the accused told the sleuths that they used to charge Rs 7-10 lakh for the paper leaking. The amount was taken in full from the parents only after the examination was over and when fully satisfied. The accused used to call the candidates only 10-14 hours before the examination and provided them with the solved question papers with ‘tick’ mark on the objective question pattern.

During this time the candidates would be confined to one room and not allowed to take any paper, mobile or other things. Inside the room they could memorise the answers and the following day of examination the accused picked up the candidates to take them to the examination centres with an advice not to discuss with anyone in the examination hall.