University official’s jail term for leaking exam paper commuted

Dubai: A university official, who accepted Dh7,500 in bribe to leak exam papers to a media student via WhatsApp, had his six-month imprisonment reduced to three months.

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 Omani student, A.S., by sending them to him on WhatsApp.

In March, the Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the official and the student to six months in jail each followed by deportation. R.K. was fined Dh7,500.

On Wednesday, the Dubai Appeal Court accepted the defendants’ appeal and reduced their six-month imprisonments to three months.

Citing grounds of leniency, presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm also cancelled the duo’s deportation order.

However, the appellate court fined A.S. Dh7,000.

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 latter argued in court: “That didn’t happen. He did not provide me any exam paper.”

The university’s Egyptian dean 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 SMS and WhatsApp. The IT employee signed a written confession,” said 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.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.