Accused teacher had easy access to question papers

New Delhi: It is very rare for a teacher to be the main conspirator for allegedly leaking exam papers. Now, investigators have found that Rakesh Kumar, a Commerce and Economics school teacher, from Una, Himachal Pradesh, stole the Class XII CBSE Economics paper, which made headlines over the country.

Officials of Delhi Police Crime Branch found that Rakesh had been assigned as centre superintendent by CBSE for consecutive four years.

This gave him access to the strong room of the Union Bank of India branch in Una where the exam papers were stored and he was well aware of the system and procedure of delivering the papers.

Rakesh reportedly hatched a plan to bypass security and steal the Economics paper, which was kept in the bank locker along with the Computer Science and Informatics Practices paper.

He had also roped in Amit and Ashok, employees of one DAV Centenary Public School, to help him.

While collecting the large bundle of question papers, Rakesh took out a small bundle containing five question papers of the Economics subject, the exam for which was held on March 26.

Leaving to his examination center, Rakesh left the Economics question papers with Amit and Ashok, who went to their DAV School.

At around 3.00 pm, Amit made a small incision in the bundle and took out one economics paper, photographed it and sent it to Rakesh.

Questions have now been raised over the procedure followed by CBSE, which appointed a teacher as centre for four consecutive years.

The incident also goes on to show that even the strong room of a bank could not keep the question paper safe.

"We are investigating the role of the bank and the school where Rakesh used to teach. Our team is analysing the CCTV footage from the bank to know if any bank official was involved in the leak." said RP Upadhaya, Special CP (Crime).