The Hindu : Front Page : All question papers leaked out: CBI

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Wednesday, Mar 22, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

All question papers leaked out: CBI

Staff Reporter

CBI statement before Kerala High Court on SSLC examination conducted in 2005

KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed the Kerala High Court on Tuesday that the investigation in the SSLC question paper leak case had revealed that the question papers of all subjects were leaked out in 2005.

It was earlier inferred that only the question papers of Social Science II, Biology and Information Technology were leaked out.

In a statement filed before Justice A. K. Basheer, the CBI said the investigation had revealed that the question papers of the SSLC model examinations, held five weeks prior to the final SSLC examination, had also been leaked out.

The statement was filed in response to a directive issued by the Court to let it know the progress of the investigation in the case. The Court issued the directive on a contempt of court petition filed by Vishnu Prasad from Kochi against the "CBI's failure to take over the investigation despite a High Court directive.''

The Court granted the CBI time till July 31 to complete the investigation and closed the contempt petition.

Case registered

The CBI's statement said that it had taken up the investigation on November 28, 2005 and registered a case under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The case related to the leak of some question papers and the alleged abuse of official position by officials of the Controller of Government Examinations in awarding the contract for printing the SSLC question papers from 2001 to 2005.

The statement said that during the Crime Branch's investigation period, V. Subramanian, owner of a printing press in Chennai where the SSLC question papers of 2005 were printed, had come up with two contradictory statements. He had initially claimed that his firm had not concluded any contract with the Pareeksha Bhavan in Kerala for printing the question papers and that his press was printing question papers on the basis of printing orders received from third accused Rajan Chacko. Later, Mr. Subramanian filed an affidavit stating that the printing contract had been concluded by his firm with the Pareeksha Bhavan and that Mr. Rajan Chacko was authorised by him to take part in the tendering/negotiation process at the Pareeksha Bhavan. In order to arrive at the factual position, it was necessary to scrutinise several bank accounts. The CBI had already commenced the process of scrutinising those bank accounts.

The CBI said that due to the ongoing SSLC and Plus Two examinations in March 2006 and the subsequent valuation of answer-sheets in April, many witnesses would not be available for examination immediately. Besides, the investigation had to be carried out in the State and in Chennai. So the CBI sought six months' time to complete the investigation.

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