Medical student arrested in class 11 paper leak case in Assam: CID

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A student of a medical college was arrested by the Assam police's CID on Friday on the charge of leaking the state board's class 11 Mathematics question paper for money, an official said.

The accused medical student also works as a part-time teacher and is the son of the owner of a private senior secondary school in Nagaon, he said.

The Mathematics paper for the first year of the Higher Secondary examination, scheduled to be held on March 21 by the Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB), was leaked.

It forced the authorities to cancel the examinations and lodge a police complaint. A complaint was also registered with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

"During the investigation, following the chain through UPI transactions and statements of some students, we got to know that the 26-year-old man, a student of the Nagaon Medical College and Hospital, leaked the papers in exchange for money," the CID official said.

The accused person's father is the proprietor of a private school with classes from primary section to 12 in Nagaon.

"The accused was produced before the court and remanded to CID custody," the official said.

He added that the accused was earlier arrested in two cases related to theft and kidnapping.

The class 11 examinations in the state were mired in controversy this year with reports of several paper leaks at different places after the Mathematics paper leak, leading to the cancellation of all tests from March 24 to 29, comprising 36 subjects.

The Higher Secondary first year or Class 11 examinations began on March 6 and were scheduled to continue till March 29.

State Education Minister Ranoj Pegu had said that the Mathematics paper was leaked after 18 schools, including three government institutes, across the state broke the security seal a day before the scheduled examination.

ASSEB has suspended the affiliation of 15 private schools across 10 districts for breaking the seal of Class 11 Mathematics question papers before the scheduled time, he had said.