Six suspects made public over SEE questions leak

KATHMANDU, April 5: Police on Thursday made public six persons including two cops, who were allegedly involved in the Secondary Education Examinations (SEE) question paper leaks in Province 2.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and Province Police Office of Saptari district organized a joint press conference and made the six public.

Among those accused, two are policemen – Bramhadev Sunarait from Rajbiraj-10 and Dipendra Kumar Mandal from Kanchanrup-6 – who was working at Kalyanpur Area Police Office in Siraha district where question papers of Kalyanpur Janata Secondary School, Baniya and Radu Secondary School, Kalyanpur were kept. 

Similarly, the others are Manoj Yadav, who is a teacher, and Bishnu Dev Yadav, Rajesh Yadav and Umesh Yadav.

The investigation report states that the culprits had cut open the sealed packet of question papers using a razor blade, took photographs of the question papers and sold the photographs. The investigators found the blade inside the envelope, according to the report.

On March 29, a CIB team led by DSP Niranjan Bhatta started the investigation into the question paper leaks after the National Examinations Board (NEB) asked the CIB to look into the matter. The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MoEST) also formed a probe committee with Prof Amuda Shrestha, an NEB member, as coordinator on March 29 and asked her to submit the report within 15 days.

The question paper of Science in Province 2 was posted on social media before the examinations on March 28. Similarly, the question paper of Social Studies exam scheduled for March 29, was also leaked before the exam. SEE exams scheduled from March 28 to April 4 including the two subjects were canceled and rescheduled for April 5 to 12.

According to the NEB, as per their standard operating procedure, the question papers are dispatched from the NEB to the District Police Offices, which send the papers to the police posts nearest to the exam centers in coordination with the District Coordination Committee concerned.
A total of 70,518 students are to sit for the SEE exams at 262 exam centers in eight districts of the Province 2.