Patna: Around 43,000 evaluated answer sheets of Grade 10 students, which had gone missing from the strong room of a government school in Bihar have been found dumped at a scrap shop, police have revealed.
The entire story came to light after a special team of police investigating the mysterious disappearance of thousands of answers sheets arrested a scrap shop owner, Pappu Kumar Gupta, on Friday. During interrogation, the scrap shop owner reportedly told the police that he had bought the answer scripts for Rs8,500 from the school peon about a fortnight back.
“The school peon called me up on my cell phone and asked me to buy scraps. Subsequently, I picked up these answer-sheets packed in 216 bags and returned on an auto-rickshaw. I paid Rs8,500 for buying these copies,” the arrested scrap shop owner reportedly told the police. According to him, the total weight of the purchased answer-sheets was 121 kilograms.
The police have also arrested the auto-rickshaw driver Santosh Kumar and the school peon Chhatu Singh in connection with sale of answer-sheets. The written scripts were sold barely days before the education department authorities were to announce the result of the Grade 10 examination, raising suspicions.
The evaluated answer-sheets had gone mysteriously missing from the strong room of the SS Girls’ Senior Secondary High School located in Gopalgnaj district. The entire story came to light early this week when the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) authorities sought the evaluated answer-sheets of the students who figured among top 25 to review their marking before the result was announced.
The recovery comes shortly after the Patna High Court while hearing a case on Friday sought a detailed report from the state government within four weeks. A bench of the High Court comprising chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice Rajiv Ranjan Prasad took cognizance of the case after a local lawyer brought he matter to their notice.
