4 held by Navi Mumbai police in connection with HSC paper leak

Four more persons, including a school trustee, were arrested today by Navi Mumbai Police allegedly in connection with the HSC Board exam question paper leak case, an official said.

The others arrested include a head clerk and teachers in a private coaching class and a junior college, the official said. Earlier, police had arrested four suspects in this case.

The trustee of Palghar Mount Mary School Anand Kamat (43), head clerk Ganesh Rane (30), owner of a private tuition class Nikhil Rane (29) and a teacher at junior college, Nallasopara Vinesh Dhotre (27), were arrested in the early hours of today, the official said.
 

During investigation it was revealed that the question papers were leaked from Mount Mary School in Palghar, police said.

"Kamat and Rane clicked photos of the question paper and sent it to Nikhil Rane who then shared it with Dhotre who forwarded and collected money from students of different groups on the messaging application," Navi Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale said.

They charged students Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 from each student, said police.

The deal of leaking question papers of Science and Commerce stream was fixed at Rs 20,000 respectively, said police.

Two separate offences were registered against unknown persons at Vashi Police Station after question papers of Marathi and Secretarial Practise (SP) subject's were leaked on March 2 and 4 respectively, Senior Inspector of Vashi Police Station, Ajaykumar Landge, said.

During the investigation Vashi Police had identified the group on messaging application through which the question papers were circulated, he added.

College students Azharuddin Shaikh (20), Rahul Bhaskar (22), repeater student of HSC Shaikh Mohd Aman Mohd Islam (19) and a private class teacher Suresh Jha (26) were arrested earlier, the official said.

During their questioning, police got the leads and a team led by inspector Chetan Kakde arrested the four accused today morning from Virar, he added.

The four accused were remanded to police custody till March 18, said Joint Commissioner of Police, Navi Mumbai, Madhukar Pandey said.

"We are investigating whether the same gang is involved in other cases of HSC exam paper leak, which are registered earlier in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai," he added.