Amid massive protests over the CBSE class 10 mathematics and class 12 economics paper leak, the Delhi Police Crime Branch said on Thursday that a total of 25 persons, including five college students and five private tutors, have been interrogated. Giving information about the investigation so far, police said, “Children of various Delhi schools shared question papers on Whatsapp before exams. 11 school children, seven college, five tutors and two private persons have been questioned till now.” Special Commissioner of Police RP Upadhyay also told reporters that police is trying to trace the trail of the alleged paper leak. “We have no information that this leakage is pan-India but if such a thing emerges, we will send teams outside Delhi,” Upadhyay told PTI.
Terming the paper leak issue as ‘unfortunate’, Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said culprits would not go scot-free, even as students took to the streets today to protest the CBSE’s decision to hold re-examination of the papers. The HRD minister said the CBSE will declare the date of re-examination possibly on Monday or Tuesday. Congress latched on to the opportunity and demanded that Javadekar and board chairperson be sacked. Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said the party demands that HRD Minister Javadekar and CBSE Chairperson Anita Karwal be sacked and a judicial probe by a high court judge be ordered into the matter.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi added insult to the injury when he listed out the various information leaks that have come to light recently under the BJP rule. In a tweet on Thursday, Gandhi said that from the Facebook data breach by a UK firm to influence election campaigns to Karnataka election date leaks and CBSE questions papers’ leaks, there’s a leak everywhere and that the country’s “chowkidar” (watchman) — read PM Modi — is “weak”. READ: Rahul Gandhi: ‘Everywhere there is leak, the chowkidaar is weak’
However, the BJP shot back at Rahul’s charge saying the Congress president was referring to the UPA rule. At a Cabinet briefing, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Rahul Gandhi is remembering his days.”
Earlier in the day, hundreds of students gathered at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, protesting against the re-examination of the CBE papers. Amid, shill cried of ‘we want justice’, students lamented how they are ‘traumatised’ after hearing the news of re-examination. Some held placards with sologs like “stop playing hit and trial with our lives, and ‘it’s not the students who need a retest, it’s the system’. Many students also demanded that if a re-exam is held, it should be held for all subjects, not just maths and economics.
