Amid growing outrage over paper leaks, Raipur Police arrested six individuals—including a college professor—on Saturday for their involvement in the leak of Indira Gandhi Agricultural University's B.Sc. (Agriculture) Entomology exam.
The professor, 38-year-old Yogesh Sonkesariya, is considered the mastermind behind the paper leak. He has been a professor at Bharti Agriculture College in Durg since 2019.
An FIR has been registered against the accused under Sections 4, 5 and 10 of the Chhattisgarh Public Examination Act, 2008, and Section 316 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
How did a professor get involved in the paper leak?
As per the protocol, professors are entrusted with carrying examination papers from the main agricultural college to their respective institutions and submitting answer sheets after examinations.
What's interesting is the mode in which Sonkesariya pulled off the leak.
Three days before the paper leak on August 17, he came to the Agricultural College at Jora, Raipur, to submit answer sheets from his college. Question papers for exams scheduled over the following week were collected after submitting them. However, instead of submitting the Entomology paper to his college authorities on return, he took it home.
Later, a thin endoscope camera was purchased, and he made a small hole in the sealed envelope using a needle and copied around 15 questions by identifying and ordering words visible through the device.
He then sold the paper to three students from his college for Ajay Nayak, Rs 11,000. Nayak allegedly passed it on to Tridev Patel, Nitin Pandey, Anuj Minj and Aditya Sahu.
According to Tarkeshwar Patel, deputy commissioner of police (central zone), the investigation established the source of the leak and the identities of all accused after 36 hours of continuous field and technical work.
“During the investigation, we traced Anuj Minj of Durg and sent a team to apprehend him. Information from his questioning led to further deployments across Kabirdham, Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur and nearby districts,” he said.
Police also seized Rs 11,000 in cash, six mobile phones, a video-recording device, cable wires, a mobile connector, a needle, a sharp instrument, a notebook and adhesive from the accused.
How did the leak come to light?
The leak came to light on the morning of the examination. The Agricultural College and Research Centre, Kawardha, received an email alerting it to the leaked paper.
The University officials approached the police, and the examination — scheduled from 10 am to 1 pm across all 28 agricultural colleges under IGAU, with around 1,200 students appearing — was cancelled that evening. A re-examination has been announced.
Registrar Dr Kapil Dev Deepak said the question paper was sent by email, accessible only through a One-Time Password (OTP) shortly before the examination. “It is a lapse on the part of the college. We are taking suggestions from the police, and a committee has been constituted to improve the system,” he said.
