SSC exams: Four arrested on charge of selling fake questions
Circulating question papers on social media found partially similar to the original ones
The Rapid Action Battalion has arrested four people on the charge of defrauding students and their families in the name of leaking and supplying question papers of the ongoing SSC examinations, officials said.
The four arrestees – Ahmed Reza Khan Rizvi (20), Md Arman (22), Md Rifat (23) and Mohammad Rasel Talukder (22) – were detained from the Kala Mia Bazar area of Chattogram city on Thursday night.
"The detainees were supplying so-called leaked but fake question papers, which they themselves prepared by combination of previous year questions and different suggestions, to examinees and their guardians via social media such as Facebook and Whatsapp in exchange for money," RAB Chattogram Zone Commander Lt Col Mahbub Alam said in a press briefing at its Chadgaon office on Friday.
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"The four are not involved in leaking question papers at all. They just made money by selling fake question papers. Some 30% were, however, common between their prepared fake questions and original questions. Hence, a rumour was spread out that question papers have been leaked," the official said and added that the ring, in the primary interrogation, confessed that they continued their fraudulence for the last four exams.
Mahbub Alam said RAB and police are in a drive to find out culprits behind the rumours of question paper leakage.
The four arrestees are former and present students of different educational institutions in the port city and are associated with Chawkbazar-based youth gangs, according to RAB. Ahmed Reza Khan Rizvi is said to be the leader of the four as he allegedly collected suggestions from various coaching centres to prepare the fake question papers.
Rizvi used a Facebook page, titled "Prince Dhruba", to sell the "fake" question papers in public. Three personal bKash numbers were provided on the page. The page was deactivated after the 9 May mathematics exam. Contact numbers were switched off as well.
RAB said they found evidence of selling fake question papers in the mobile phones seized from the four arrestees. A case has been filed with the Baklia Police Station in the port city against them under the Digital Security Act.
Circulating questions found partially similar to original ones
"It was just 12 hours before the mathematics exam [on 9 May] of the SSC examinations. One of my students shared some pictures of a hand-written question set of mathematics via Facebook messenger and requested me to prepare answers for him," a Chattogram University student of economics, seeking anonymity, told The Business Standard.
"I didn't believe it at first but was surprised to have found that 3 out of six questions were identical to the next day's question papers. Besides, most of the questions in the multiple-choice sections were exactly the same," he added.
Talking to The Business Standard, several other Chattogram University students who taught SSC examinees at homes said almost the same.
The question papers and sample answers were also found in different private Facebook groups. The Business Standard obtained some screenshots from one such group, named "Batch 23 (CUFL)", which show that the mathematics question paper was uploaded exactly at 9:39pm on 8 May. Written and multiple-choice test questions were handwritten.
Not only Chattogram, many students of Maheshkhali island, which is separated from the mainland, got these question papers before exam days.
"My younger sister is an SSC examinee. She talked about leaked questions before exam days. I didn't care. But before the maths exam day, she came to me with some questions which she got through WhatsApp. Even if she asked me for a solution, I didn't help her. The next day, I noticed that the [original] questions are the same to what she received the previous night," Shahidul Hasan Bishal, a resident of Moheshkhali, told TBS,
A student named Nurul Abshar added that long before the exam, some of their seniors offered them to supply leaked question papers in exchange for Tk500-1,000 each. All the deals were made on Facebook and WhatsApp.
He further added that the rings leaked several other exam questions including that for English II.
When contacted, Chattogram Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board Exam Controller Narayan Chandra Nath told TBS that they do not know how questions were leaked.
"However, the exams are over, and we have nothing to do. These questions were not leaked from Chattogram for sure, it might be from the other side. We have heard that BG Press officials were involved in it. Law enforcement agencies, including RAB, have been looking into the matters," he added.
