125 charged with DU question paper leak

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police today pressed charges against 125 people including 87 students of Dhaka University in a case filed over their alleged involvement in question paper leak of the university’s Gha unit admission test in 2017.

Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police of CID Sumon Kumar Das, also investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet before Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.  

Police pressed the charge sheet following an investigation for one and a half years.

The CID had arrested 47 of the 125 suspects, including the alleged mastermind, Alip Kumar Biswas, a suspended assistant director of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP) in different times and they are now on bail.

Forty-six of them have already given statements before a magistrate, confessing to their crimes.

Besides, the rest 78 accused remain absconding, our staff correspondent reports quoting the CID official.

CID also prayed to the court to allow the lawmen to submit a supplementary charge sheet against 89 more DU students, who passed the university’s admission tests through cheating with the help of this gang. Investigators are verifying the identities of the students.

In its very first raid at two DU dormitories, the CID arrested two BCL leaders -- Mohiuddin Rana, an assistant secretary of the BCL central committee, and Abdullah Al Mamun, theatre and debate affairs secretary of the BCL’s Amar Ekushey Hall unit -- only hours before the university’s “Gha” unit admission test on October 20, 2017.

Both were expelled by the university authorities in January this year.

In January last year, the DU authorities expelled 15 students over their involvement in leaking question papers and cheating in the university’s admission tests.

Police tracked down the gang members following a series of arrests since October 2017 when investigators raided two DU dormitories hours before the “Gha” unit admission test.

Job or admission seekers were given the answers via tiny ear-pieces within a few minutes into the exams. The devices were supplied by the gang, which had brought about a hundred digital communication devices from Mumbai, the investigators said.

In 2017, this gang leaked question papers of DU’s “Gha” unit admission test from a printing press in the capital’s Indira Road.

Some of the gang members, led by Natore District Sports Officer Rakibul Hasan, used to leak questions hours before the admission tests, they mentioned.

A case was filed with Shahbagh Police Station in this connection in October 2017 under the Public Examinations Law and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.