Racket members earn millions in 17 yrs: CID

At least 80 active members of a racket have earned millions of taka by illegally admitting hundreds of students to medical colleges through question-paper leak in the last 17 years, report agencies.
CID chief Mohammad Ali Mia, additional inspector general of police, said this at a press conference at the CID Headquarters in Malibagh on Sunday.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested 12 people, including seven doctors, in connection with leaking question papers of medical college admission tests.
Among the arrestees, four were associated with the BNP and one with the Jamaat-e-Islami, said the CID chief.
Mohammad Ali said that around 1.5 million students from all over the country will take part in this year' HSC exams scheduled to start on August 17.
Every year, a gang becomes active when public examinations start and leaks questions in various ways, he added.
"We have already identified many fraud members involved in the question paper leak of SSC, HSC, Dhaka University admission test and BCS and brought them under law."
Recently, the cyber police of the CID found a huge syndicate that regularly leaks questions in the admission tests of the medical colleges of the country.
Following this, CID conducted drives and arrested them, he added.
Meanwhile, Question paper leaks forced the government to postpone several exams for Secondary School Certificate (SSC), reports bdnews24.com.
With more than 1.2 million students set to sit the Higher Secondary Certificates (HSC) exams scheduled to start on Thursday, officials have braced for more safeguards to prevent the recurrence of such leaks.
Negligence, coupled with a breach of trust, can lead to question paper leaks in the current system of distribution.
The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dinajpur postponed four exams and cancelled questions of six subjects due to the leaks from a school in Kurigram's Bhurungamari Upazila in September last.
Six people, including teachers, were arrested. Kamrul Islam, chairman of the board, sounded helpless at that time.
"The sorting and transportation is based on trust. What can we do if you people breach the trust? We need to be more careful in the future," he had said.
The authorities are more careful this time during the HSC tests as Professor Tapan Kumar Sarkar, chairman of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Sub-Committee, believes the arrests sent a strong warning against practices like question leak.
Secondary and higher secondary test questions are printed from the Bangladesh Government Press and sent to the deputy commissioners of each district. From there the question papers go to the Upazila level, from where they are distributed among the centres.
In the presence of a policeman, the centre secretary, along with the government official in charge, checks whether the centre's question came properly and keeps it in the Upazila treasury locker or the police station. They take the question papers to the centre in the morning of the exam day.
M Kaykobad, a former professor at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, who led the government's investigation in 2018 to prevent question leaks, has questioned the system.
Stating that he advised the policymakers to follow the digital system many times, Kaykobad said, "Question paper printing should start an hour before a test. We can keep as many printers as necessary. In this way there'll be no chance of question paper leaks ahead of the exams."
Prof Tapan said the chief executives of the Upazila administration, treasury officers and others have been asked to strongly monitor the sorting process to prevent leaks.
Prof Tofazzur Rahman, examination controller of Dinajpur, hopes the system will work this time.
A lack of monitoring allowed people involved in the process to leak question papers, he said.
Earlier, dishonest people took question papers of other subjects in the same envelope of question papers for another subject.
This time, the Upazila chief executives or assistant commissioners will check whether the correct question papers have been taken, said Tofazzur.
The HSC tests are being held seven months behind the expected time due to the coronavirus pandemic and floods.
The exams will be held in 2,649 centres across the country. On the first day, Bangla tests will be held under general education boards and the technical education board while madrasa students will take the Quran Mazid test.