The question papers of Dhaka University's “Gha” unit admission test in 2015 and 2016 were leaked from a printing press in the capital's Indira Road.

“A printing press worker used to help a racket leaking questions hours before the exam,” Molla Nazrul Islam, special superintendent of Criminal Investigation Department, told a press briefing at the CID headquarters in the capital yesterday.

Police tracked down this racket following a series of arrests over the past three months. Since October, law enforcers arrested 24 people in connection with leaking question papers, 15 of them DU students.

But the CID official could not say anything about the alleged question paper leak of DU's “Gha” unit exam this year.

Admission seekers alleged the questions of the English part were leaked around eight hours before the test began on October 20.

The DU authorities dismissed the allegation and published the results in just two days, although the CID arrested a number of DU students over the alleged leak about five hours before the exam. 

Over the past three months, police busted a number of rackets involved in leaking question papers of various public universities' admission tests as well as recruitment exams for government jobs.              

In the last one week alone, police arrested 10 alleged members of various gangs, including Raqibul Hasan Esami alias Atik, 28, a sports officer of Natore.

“The rackets used to leak questions by using electronic devices, often hours before the exams,” the CID official said.

Based on information from the arrestees, the CID arrested two Rajshahi University students -- Boni Israil and Maruf Hossain -- on December 9.

Two days later, they arrested Raqibul, who told them about the printing press worker Khan Bahadur, 28, and his friend Saiful Islam.

The CID official said that Raqibul and Saiful used to share a room in Uttara in 2015.

After learning that Bahadur works at a printing press, Raqibul, then a college a teacher in Uttara, requested Saiful to help him get the question paper for his (Raqibul's) brother, who was seeking admission in DU that year.

Later, they devised a scheme to make money by leaking questions, Nazrul said. 

Another key member of the gang is Navid Anjum Tonoy of DU.

“Raqibul, a former student of Rajshahi University, used to contact admission seekers through Boni and Maruf, who had connections with Tonoy,” he said.

Contacted, Farid Uddin Ahmed, the then dean of Social Science Faculty of DU and currently vice chancellor of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), dismissed the allegation of the leak in 2015 and 2016.

“Some students may have got admitted through a digital forgery syndicate, but there is no scope of leaking questions before the exam as the question papers were prepared very confidentially,” he said.

Over the years, question papers of all public exams --- including JSC, SSC and HSC --- medical college and university admission tests, and government banks' recruitment exams have all been leaked at some point.

The trend of leaking question papers has hit a new low. Earlier this week, question papers of classes I, II and IV were leaked in different districts of the country.

In a letter to the government, the Anti-Corruption Commission said it was a failure of the state machinery.

Although the authorities denied that this year's “Gha” unit question paper of DU was leaked, the CID arrested two Chhatra League leaders -- Mohiuddin Rana, an assistant secretary of the BCL central committee (now expelled), and Abdullah Al Mamun, theatre and debate affairs secretary of the BCL's Amar Ekushey Hall unit, early on October 20, only hours before the admission test.

Another key suspect, Alip Kumar Biswas, now a suspended BKSP official, is on the run.

Asked about DU students' involvement in the leak, DU Proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabani said, “We will take actions in line with the university rules after we get the documents to prove their involvement.”