UP: 7 more held in XII English paper leak case

Ballia (UP): Seven more people, including two local journalists, were arrested on Thursday for their alleged roles in the leakage of class 12 English question paper of the Uttar Pradesh school examination board, police said.

The class 12 English examination was cancelled in 24 districts on Wednesday after the paper was leaked and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered stringent action, including the invoking of the National Security Act, against the culprits. The fresh exam will now be held on April 13, an official statement

had said.

The number of those arrested in the incident has gone up to 24. Those arrested include Ballia's District Inspector of Schools (DIoS) Brajesh Kumar Mishra and a total of three journalists with the one arrested earlier, police officials said.

The DIoS and one of the arrested journalists Ajit Ojha were sent to jail under judicial custody on Wednesday after they were produced before the chief judicial magistrate.

"The remaining 22 arrested accused in the exam paper leak case were produced before the judicial magistrate here and were remanded in 14-day judicial custody," Ballia Additional Superintendent of Police Vijay Tripathi told on Thursday.

Police sources said the accused DIoS has been shifted to the Azamgarh district jail.

The remaining accused have been lodged in the Ballia district jail.

Teams of Special Task Force and SOG (Special Operation Groups) of Uttar Pradesh Police investigating the case are presently camping in Ballia, trying to track down individuals and the mastermind involved in the crime.

Uttar Pradesh Education Minister Gulab Devi, meanwhile, visited Ideal Public Inter College, a UP Board exam centre in Lucknow on Thursday to oversee arrangements for the ongoing school examinations.

She asked the centre in-charge about procedures being followed to prevent the use of unfair means and also went into classrooms where students were taking

the board exams.