Amid the furore over the alleged paper leak in medical entrance exam NEET, police investigation reveals the extensive conspiracy and planning in another leaked exam. The qualifying exams for the post of Review Officer/Assistant Review Officer in Uttar Pradesh, held on February 11, was cancelled amid allegations of paper leak.
When allegations of the questions being leaked surfaced, administration strongly denied it. “There was no paper leak. I completely refute it. There was negligence on behalf of the centre invigilator who opened a bundle of exam question paper in the control room instead of the examination hall,” said Ghazipur District Magistrate Aryaka Akhauri. Four months later, she has been proved wrong. Her investigation hadn’t covered the meticulous plan, partly devised at a printing press in Bhopal, 950 km away.
More than 10 Lakh students had appeared for the examination that was cancelled.
The Investigation
Investigations revealed that the exam paper leak took place at the Bishop Johnson Girl’s High School and College in Prayagraj. Later, a Special Task Force found that the paper was leaked from the printing press as well. At the core of the leak were four engineers – Rajiv Nayan Mishra, Sunil Raghuvanshi, Vishal Dubey, and Subhash Prakash .
The second leak, at the school, happened a few hours before the exam, sources said. Arpit Vineet Yashwant, who was overseeing the examination, took pictures of the question paper at 6.30 am on the morning of the exam. Five people, including Arpit, have been arrested in this case.
Paper Leak From The Printing Press
The first leak took place at the printing press in Bhopal where the exam paper was printed. Rajiv Nayan Mishra, one of the masterminds of the UP police exam paper leak, plotted it with a printing press employee, Sunil Raghuvanshi, Vishal Dubey and Subhash Praksh. All of them have engineering degrees.
Rajiv Nayan Mishra met Sunil Raghuvanshi through Vishal Dubey. Sunil Raghuvanshi and Vishal Dubey studied together in engineering college.
While Sunil worked at the printing press, Vishal and Subhash used to arrange the admission of students into engineering colleges.
When Vishal realised that his classmate worked at the printing place, he informed Rajiv Mishra. They bribed Sunil Raghuvanshi into helping them and handing them the question paper for money.
When the RO/ARO question paper came to the printing press, Sunil informed the others. He demanded Rs 10 lakh to give them access to the paper. But he had a condition – the candidates should be made to read the paper in front of him so it didn’t go viral. Rajiv Mishra, Sunil Raghuvanshi and another accomplice, Subhash Prakash, agreed to the terms.
How Engineers Engineered the Leak
Investigating officer Amit Srivastava, a member of the Varanasi unit of the special task force, said: “All of them were engineers, they were smart and technically very sound. They meticulously planned the paper leak.”
Vishal Dubey had told Sunil that to identify the RO/ARO paper, he needed to look for two sets of paper with 140 and 40 questions in them respectively. He added that the question paper would also include questions on UP.
Sunil Raghuvanshi kept looking for an opportunity. If a question paper is damaged during printing, it is kept aside and destroyed using a paper shredder. On February 3, Sunil was present at the printing press for machine repairs. Spotting the question paper in the press, he took it along with a machine part, pretending he was going to fix it. He took the papers home and informed the others. The group decided that on February 8 – three days before the exam – candidates would be taken to a hotel, Komal, and shown the paper for Rs 12 lakh each.
Sunil reached the Hotel with six copies of two sets of question papers. Subhash Prakash solved the paper along with a helper and the students were made to memorise the answers. Two other accomplices, Vivek Upadhyay and Amarjeet Sharma, brought the candidates to the Hotel. Vivek belongs from Uttar Pradesh and Amarjeet is from Bihar, they acted as agents who arranged the candidates.
Subhash Prakash was himself a candidate for the RO/ARO exam. The police found question papers from his phone and the serial numbers were identical to those viral on social media.
It turned out that Rajiv Nayan Mishra, greedy for more money, had shared images of the question paper with Ravi Attri – the mastermind of the UP Police constable paper leak. After this, the paper went viral on social media.
Rajiv Mishra, the kingpin of this operation had earlier been involved in other crimes as well. His girlfriend Shivani was also a part of the operation and looked after the money transactions, according to the police.
Six people have been arrested and investigations continue.
UP Police Constable Exam Leak
A similar operation was arranged by Rajiv Mishra and Ravi Attri to leak the UP Police Constable exam, held days after the RO/ARO Exam. In that, an employee of the transportation company helped the masterminds arrange the question papers with a safe-breaking expert from Bihar. Both Ravi Attri and Rajiv Mishra are in Meerut Jail. In the UP Police Constable exam, more than 47 lakh aspirants appeared for 60,000 job vacancies. The examination was cancelled after paper leak allegations.
