Dubai: A university official was sentenced to six months in jail for leaking exam papers via WhatsApp to a media student in exchange for a Dh7,500 bribe.
The 29-year-old Indian official, R.K., who worked at the university’s IT department, took Dh7,500 in bribes to leak exam papers to the 32-year-old Omani student, A.S., by sending them to him on WhatsApp.
A.S. was also sentenced to six months in jail for bribing R.K.
The Dubai Court of First Instance also fined R.K. Dh7,500.
According to Monday’s ruling, presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat said the defendants will be deported after serving their jail terms.
Court records said A.S. paid Dh500 each for 15 exam papers [Dh7,500 in total] to R.K. in return for leaking the papers to him in June 2014.
R.K. denied the charge of abusing his work in the IT department and taking a bribe to leak the exam papers to A.S.
The student said: “That didn’t happen. He did not provide me any exam paper.”
An Egyptian dean at the university said they were informed that some of the exam papers had been leaked.
“We changed most of the exam papers as a precautionary step. We summoned all the IT staff for an internal investigation. We held an investigation with the IT staff and noticed R.K. was confused when we asked about the leaked questions. Upon asking him face-to-face if he had leaked any exam papers, he confessed immediately. He said he leaked 15 exam papers of different topics to the media student. R.K. confessed that he communicated with A.S. and leaked the papers to him via SMSs and WhatsApp. The IT employee signed a written confession,” claimed the dean.
The Indian defendant was cited admitting to prosecutors that he took Dh7,500 in two payments in Sharjah.
Records said 103 photos of the exam papers were found on A.S.’ mobile phone that was examined by Dubai Police’s forensic laboratory.
Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
