'Waves' of question paper leaks hit children

Ten out of 11 SSC examinees who were detained on Tuesday and produced before a Chittagong court on Wednesday over question paper leaks were given bail, following their gaurdians' undertakings.

Their lawyers alleged that main culprits of question paper leaks were not caught whereas the students as 'victims' were detained.

“Thanks to the state's failure, a tidal surge of question papers leaks has just swept the nation. The children have now been victims of such deluge (of question paper leaks),” Zafar Iqbal, a lawyer who represented the students, told the Chittagong Metropolitan Juvenile Court.

He insisted that the government must first stop "the surge of question paper leaks".

“Why do those who are behind the question leaks remain untraced? Here, those who are victims are being blamed,” said Monzurul Haque, another lawyer.

A total of 40 lawyers stood for the detained students at the court on Wednesday opposing remand sought by the police.

Judge Jannatul Ferdaus granted bail prayers for 10 students as their guardians assured the court that they would comply with law. Explanation from the guardian of one more examinee was satisfactory to the court.

Some 24 examinees of science section were expelled and 9 students and one female teacher detained as they were allagedly caught red-handed with Physics question paper of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, on board a bus near Mahila Samity High School and College centre in Chittagong.

The law enforcement also detained two sisters from the spot in connection with the incident. Seven mobile handsets and two tabs, in which soft copies of question paper of the examination were found, were also seized.

The nine expelled students and the teacher were from Patia branch of Chittagong Ideal High School while the siblings were students of Baoya School there.

The father of the sisters and 11 students were sued in public examination law of 1980.

On Tuesday evening, the arrested examinees and teacher were taken to Chittagong Kotwali police station. Seven male examinees were kept in a lock-up and two female examinees were kept in another room along with the female teacher.

Speaking to this reporter, brother of one of the female examinees, present on the court premises, said his sister was not involved in the question paper leaks. She got the questions from the Facebook and Whatsapp, he claimed.

He observed that the children are being harassed by the detention process and their implications in the lawsuit. "It's in fact the responsibility of the state to address the question paper leakage."

Two guardians -- Abu Zafar Chowdhury and Sirajul Islam -- told Prothom Alo that the question papers were leaked on the internet and the examinees got them through their mobile sets. The examinees are not involved in the process, they insisted.

Once the students were produced at the court, the judge called their guardians to her personal room and talked to them for about an hour.

The guardians said the judge wanted to know how the examinees got the questions.

One of the accused examinee said a Facebook group page titled ‘Sayem Ahmed’ sent message to them offering question paper in exchange for Tk 300 to be sent through bKash. Questions were sent to them about an hour before the examination. They had to pay Tk 600 more after getting the question.

The judge later asked the Chittagong city detective police inspector, Sanjay Kumar Sinha, to quiz the 11 students at the courtroom only to identify the syndicate that was engaged in question paper leaks. The officer interrogated the examinees for an hour.