Cops: HSC papers may’vebeen leaked across region

Nagpur: The alleged mastermind with initial access to the leaked HSC mathematics, physics, and chemistry question papers remains underground. Sources suspected the evasive mastermind could be an education system insider and had nexus with tuition class franchises, junior colleges and some schools.Adding to the complexity, absconding key accused Altaf Godil, a tuition teacher widely regarded as the crucial link between the primary distributor and the unidentified insider, holding potentially vital answers to unravel the entire probe.
Authorities are analysing call details and cellphone locations of both the unidentified mastermind and Altaf. All the accused and suspects are learnt to have deleted their WhatsApp data, which has posed a hurdle to the probe. With the tuition class, junior colleges and school networks spread across Vidarbha, the cops are not ruling out the paper leak stretching to other districts too, said a police official. At the forefront of the police investigation is Sandeep Sartkar, a 46-year-old primary school teacher in Jaitala, who has been identified as one of the primary accused in distributing the leaked papers. Authorities allege that Sartkar received confidential question sets from an unknown source and then forwarded them, often bundled with unofficial answer keys, to directors and operators of several private coaching institutes and tuition centres.These materials rapidly spread across multiple WhatsApp groups, appearing roughly 30 minutes before the exams began and enabling a number of students to cheat and gain unfair advantages.