Principal, 4 students among 7 held over Andhra University exam paper leak

Visakhapatnam: Seven persons, including Principal of a private college and four students, were arrested on Monday for their alleged involvement in leaking the final year BSc question paper of Andhra University (AU), police said. According to police, the paper had got leaked on March 16 and the AU authorities had received a WhatsApp message containing the images of the leaked paper about one hour before the exam. After this, the AU Registrar Professor V Umamaheswara Rao cancelled the BSc-III mathematics examination (linear algebra and vector calculus), which was already in progress in 79 centres of the university, police said.

The arrested have been identified as Kuracha Suresh (43), Principal and Chief Superintendent of Vidyarthi Degree College, Chodavaram, Kuracha Santhosh (27), a relative of the principal and who also works as a computer operator in the college, Pasila Gunaji (20), Bodi Demudu (20), Puthi Thrinadh (21), Vijaya (all students) and Murali, a maths lecturer in the college, police said.

Giving information about the case, DCP (Law and Order) Naveen Gulati told reporters, “Some BSc final year students of the college had approached the Principal and his cousin, Santosh, a day before the exam and requested them to leak the paper, as they were not prepared for it since the maths lecturer had quit the college midway during the year.”

“On their request, Santosh asked the students to come to the college around 9 am on March 16 as the examination was scheduled to begin at 2 pm. The students were given a photocopy of the question paper. The students then approached another mathematics lecturer Murali to solve the paper. Gunaji took a picture of the question paper and uploaded and circulated it through WhatsApp,” he said.

The message reached the Registrar half an hour before the examination and after checking it with the master copy, he called off the examination, Gulati said.

“Based on the complaint, Inspector of Three-Town Police Station B Venkata Rao and his team investigated the case and nabbed the accused,” the DCP said. Further investigation into the case is on.