Submit report on theft of HSC question papers in 3 weeks, HC tells CB

OST Bureau
Cuttack, Dec 18:

The Odisha High Court on Tuesday asked the SP and Investigating Officer (IO) of the state crime branch to submit a status report on the theft of question papers in the annual matriculation examination in 2012 in three weeks.

A division bench of the court, comprising Justice Indrajit Mohanty and Justice BN Mohapatra, issued the directive after hearing a PIL filed by the former president of Ravenshaw University Student’s Council Akshaya Das.

The High Court had earlier rejected the report of the IO and Crime Branch DSP Debi Prasad Chakrabarty. Expressing dissatisfaction over the mode of investigation, the court had asked him and the concerned SP to submit a fresh report by October 22 this year.

During the hearing of the PIL on Tuesday, the state government sought more time to file the status report.

Alleging that there had been no progress in the investigation, the petitioner’s advocate Ajay Mohanty appealed to the court to order a CBI probe for an impartial investigation into the case.

Besides the question paper theft case, the petitioner also alleged that there were massive irregularities in the selection of examination centres and evaluation of answer sheets. Since the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) is responsible for the overall conduct of the examinations, the secretary of the Board is also liable to explain”, it pointed out.

The court had issued a notice to the Board secretary in this regard.

It may be mentioned that the Crime Branch police had arrested the peon and the security guard of Bhagabati Vidyapitha High School under Bhajapur block in Puri district in 2012 in connection with the question paper theft case and forwarded them to the court.

Though 21 months have already elapsed in the meanwhile, there has not been much headway in the investigation.