New Delhi, 02 December, 2021: The Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test ( UPTET), scheduled to be held on 28 November 2021, was cancelled after the recent question paper leak. Just before the exam began, the UPTET question paper went viral on several WhatsApp groups in Mathura, Ghaziabad, and Bulandshahr.
Around 20 lakh candidates were supposed to appear for the test. They will now appear in a rescheduled exam, to be held within a month. The state government said that 29 persons have been arrested in this connection.
UPTET 2021 Paper Leak Issue: How did the leak take place?
- The question paper of the examination did not reach the examination centres on time. As per the Special Task Force (STF) of UP police, it came to light that the same set of question papers as that of the examination got circulated. It was at this juncture that the government decided to cancel the examinations.
- Items seized from the accused included mobile phones and photocopy of question papers.
- As per the police, a car, 50 photocopies of the question paper, and Rs. 17,000 were recovered from the accused.
- During the interrogation, it was revealed that the accused have been involved in 60 such cases and received Rs 50,000 each for papers. A case has been registered against the accused under various sections (420, 467 and 471) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh.
Note: Earlier, as many as 23 people have been accused of using technical and other intelligence methods from different cities of UP. This includes four from Lucknow, 13 from Prayagraj, three from the Meerut STF, and one from Kaushambi district.
The UP Government is taking prompt actions by conducting in-depth investigations. As per a recent tweet by the state government:
UPTET 2021 Paper Leak Issue: Why did the leak happen?
- As per the Special Task Force of UP police, Rai Anoop Prasad, director of RSM Finserv Ltd (Badarpur, New Delhi) was arrested on 30 November 2021, who printed question papers of the Uttar Pradesh Teachers Eligibility Test (UPTET).
- During questioning, Prasad revealed that the task of printing the question papers was first given to him by Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay, secretary of Exam Regulatory Authority (ERA), Prayagraj, UP. He mentioned that the company didn’t have any facility of security printing and the question papers were printed at four different printing companies, which led to the paper getting leaked.
- As per the Basic Education Secretary, Upadhyay has been found guilty for not maintaining the sanctity of the examination, and failing to adhere to the high standards of confidentiality, and hence, has been suspended by the Governor.
- Prasad and Upadhaya have been booked under IPC sections 420 for cheating, 409 for criminal breach of trust, and 120-B for criminal conspiracy. They have been sent to jail after being produced before the court.
Note: It has also been reported that one of the accused had set up a computer lab to hack computers during the examination but they failed to do it due to the alertness of an outsourced agency conducting the online exam. Thereafter, they tried to place proxy candidates but did not succeed.
