Professor, 5 students held for Raipur agri varsity paper leak; endoscopic camera used to capture questions

RAIPUR: A professor and five students of a private college in Chhattisgarh's Durg district have been arrested in connection with the leak of a question paper of government-run Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV) here, police said on Saturday.

The accused professor allegedly captured the questions by inserting an endoscopic camera in a sealed envelop, according to the police probe.

The question paper of entomology, a BSc Agriculture second-year subject, was cancelled after the leak came to light on the morning of the examination on August 20.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Cyber) Smruthik Rajanala told reporters that the accused were arrested within 36 hours of receiving a complaint.

The examination was to be held from 10 am to 1 pm at 28 agriculture colleges affiliated with the university.

As per the complaint filed by Dr N R Rangare, senior scientist and in-charge of the undergraduate examination cell at IGKV, the Agriculture College and Research Centre at Kawardha received an email at 8.41 am claiming that the paper had leaked. Other officials received the email at 8:54 am.

Students and their representatives also informed the university through WhatsApp that some purported questions from the paper were circulating, the complaint said.

A case was registered against unidentified persons under the Chhattisgarh Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2008, and section 316 (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, DCP Rajanala said.

A team of more than 100 police officials, including members of the Anti-Crime and Cyber Unit and Telibandha police station personnel, was formed to probe the leak.

The cyber wing analysed the viral question paper, screenshots, photographs, messages and social media posts, and traced the source of the leak to Durg student Anuj Minj.

Alleged mastermind Yogesh Sonkesariya, a professor at Bharti Agriculture College in Durg, and four other students of the same college were subsequently arrested after a 36-hour investigation, the DCP said.

The arrested students were identified as Ajay Nayak (20), Tridev Patel (22), Nitin Pandey (22), Anuj Minj (22) and Aditya Sahu (20).

Sonkesariya (38), a native of Seoni district in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, had been working at Bharti Agriculture College since 2019. For about a year, he had been visiting the Agriculture College in Raipur to deposit answer sheets of students of his college and collect question papers of upcoming examinations, DCP Rajanala said.

On August 17, after depositing answer sheets at the agriculture college in Jora, Raipur, he allegedly collected question papers for upcoming examinations. While he kept most of the papers at his college, he allegedly took home the sealed envelope containing the Entomology question paper.

He allegedly made a small hole with a needle and a sharp instrument, and inserted an endoscopic camera to capture images or videos of the questions, the police official said.

The professor then allegedly sold the paper for Rs 11,000 to Ajay Nayak and two other students. Nayak allegedly shared the paper with Tridev Patel, Nitin Pandey, Anuj Minj and Aditya Sahu.

Police seized Rs 11,000 in cash, six mobile phones, a video recording device and cables and mobile connectors from the accused.

Two other students, allegedly involved in the case, are absconding and efforts are underway to arrest them, DCP Rajanala said.