Examination Paper Leaks : Birthing A Nationwide Financial Crime Syndicate

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BY R.K.MISRA

On April 4, the in- charge principal of a college in Bhavnagar city of Gujarat was detained along with two students for leaking a B. Com question paper. On April 6, thirty people were arrested for allegedly ‘purchasing’ leaked question papers of the junior clerks exam in January being held by  the Gujarat Service Selection Board. About nine and a half  lakh candidates had converged on centres  for the competitive exams for 1181 posts for junior clerks on January 29 but had to go back disappointed following the leaks. This is the thirteenth paper leak case involving  government recruitment examinations  in Gujarat since 2014.

Gujarat is not the lone ranger. Switch to Rajasthan. Over the last 12 years covering both Congress and BJP rule, there have been 17 question paper leaks including the one for recruiting senior teachers in government schools on December 24 last year. This figure does not include the ones taking place in academic institutions like the Hindi Literature question paper of the Kota Open University on  January 3 this year.

Madhya Pradesh which is still feeling the tremors of the Vyapam scam-the medical entrance and recruitment scam which started in 1995 and was exposed in 2013- is not lagging behind either. In February, an exam for recruitment of nurses on contract under the National Health Mission  was cancelled after the paper was found to have been leaked. Over 45000 aspirants were to appear for 2284 posts. March witnessed the leak of four papers of the class 10 and 12  school board exams in MP.

On March 5, the Telangana Public Service Commission(TPSC) paper for junior engineer (town planning) got leaked leading to its cancellation. The latest is the case of the Secondary School Certificate(SSC) Hindi and Telugu paper ‘leaks’ in Telangana on April 3-4 and the arrest of state BJP president, and MP ,Bandi Sanjay Kumar for an alleged ‘conspiracy’ to “ leak” the question papers to “provoke breach of peace”. He has been remanded to 14 days judicial custody. Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,  Himachal Pradesh , Haryana,West Bengal, Tamil Nadu….the list is long.

The  examples and the  states cited  above are merely recent samples of what is now a national malaise. There is hardly a state of the country where  such ‘leaks’ of examination papers has not taken place. The examination architecture of India - both competitive and academic-  leaks like a sieve.

Estimates vary. According to one published estimate there have been more than 70 cases of question paper leaks in the country in the last seven years. Academic circles put the figure at many times this number. The number of students/aspirants affected by these leaks would go into crores. Add to this  their sweat quotient, valuable years chasing a mundane job and the frustrations bordering on brutalizing of their psyches that such leaks and cancellations bestow in addition to the monetary burden. The huge numbers in lakhs that  a few thousand vacancies at the clerical level attracts confronts the country with a frightening spectre of joblessness haunting it despite all the outsize claims governments of the day make. No wonder the possibility of violence hangs heavy at all such meets. When in January the exams were cancelled ,the Gujarat government made hurried arrangements to requisition state transport buses to ensure that the aspirants are  homewards bound free of cost.

If one closely studies the innards of the examination paper leaks in the states, it becomes  evident that it is no longer a regional affair but a full-scale countrywide racket with huge financial implications that would easily rival a national corporate entity in terms of turnover. It is a hub and spoke centralized syndicate which  has emerged to take charge of the business wherein not just money but muscle power is being used. it is a  pure, unadulterated black money creating business which is birthing a crime syndicate of frightening proportions.

In the case of the January Gujarat exam leak case, many of those who’ purchased’  the leaked papers were either contractual employees already attached to various government departments or the next of kin of Gujarat government employees, the Gujarat Anti-terrorist Squad(ATS) probing the case has found. It is common knowledge that the leaked papers were being marketed for  between Rs 12-15 lakhs per piece. In 9.5 lakh aspirants if one were to find 5000 buyers, the total amount involved is anybody’s guess. Now calculate the number of  job-related competitive examinations going on in the country at any point of time  and multiply just a fraction of the total aspirants with their paying capacity and one has an astounding sum of sullied money skating round the national rink.

Apart from the fact that the kingpins of this national syndicate still remain elusive and even the bulk of those who were booked are out on bail in most of the cases, it is evidently clear that the syndicate is aware of the weaknesses of the regional policing system. So the ‘spokes’ of the MP leaks are in Haryana, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh and in Bihar while a key link  is picked up from Gujarat. In the Gujarat case the ‘spokes’ operated from Hyderabad, Orissa, Patna Kolkata and Vadodara. This cross-holding is a recurring pattern in almost all  paper leak cases. And so are some of the key names which figure in most of them countrywide.

However, the biggest obstacle in the centralized  investigation of these cases is political. There is complete lack of trust between the BJP- ruled Centre and the Opposition- ruled states. BJP creates a big ruckus over the leaks in Congress -ruled  Rajasthan but turns stone silent in Gujarat  and MP where it is in power. The pattern is a continuing phenomenon elsewhere as well. As for the  central investigating agencies, they  themselves now stand  reduced  to short staffed and fatigued fire fighters frenziedly chasing puny political targets while the ‘cyber-thugs’ and the ‘leak-leaders’ have their cash registers ringing over-time ! 

http://epaper.lokmat.com/articlepage.php?articleid=LOKTIME_NPLT_20230411_6_2

http://odishapostepaper.com/edition/4462/orissapost/page/9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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