Question Leak Racket: A public univ professor ‘linked’

The name of a professor of a renowned public university came up in the confessional statement of a man arrested over leaked question papers of recruitment exams for bankers.

Delowar Hossain, who was arrested on Wednesday in a case filed over the leaking of question papers of recruitment exams at five state-run banks, confessed to his involvement at a Dhaka court on Thursday.

He said the professor helped Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST), where he is an adjunct faculty, get the job of preparing and printing the question papers.

When the questions got printed at a press, the professor, who is the chairman of a department at a public engineering university, used to take two copies of the question papers, added Delowar, a suspended office attendant of AUST.

Delowar said he sometimes put two sets of questions in the professor's bag.

Court sources said Delowar mentioned several other names in his confession.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Shahadat Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch (Tejgaon), said some individuals named in the confessional statement are not even part of the exam committee.

"We will sit with the Bankers' Selection Committee Secretariat and Ahsanullah university authorities to make a decision about them," he said.

Delowar in his statement further said he and the other suspects used to leak the questions of recruitment tests of five banks and those of preliminary and written recruitment exams for different government jobs.

Besides Delowar, the DB on Wednesday arrested Parvez Miah, a suspended lab assistant at AUST, and Rabiul Awal, a binder at Ahsania Press and Publication in Ashulia. All three of them made confessional statements under Section 164 of the CrPC.

Officers earlier arrested Muktaruzzaman Royal, a suspended technician of the private university.

In his confession, Delowar said the gang got the question paper of five banks' preliminary exams from Rabiul two days before the test on November 6.

Delowar said he worked as an office attendant of the treasurer of AUST in 2016. He learnt that AUST gets the tasks of moderating questions of various recruitment tests of banks and other institutions. As the treasurer was a member of the exam committee, Delowar got a chance to be involved in the printing job and he regularly visited Ahsania Mission's printing press in Ashulia.

He added that security was lax at the printing press and he took its advantage. He handed the questions of four or five recruitment tests to Muktaruzzaman and Parvez in exchange of Tk 50,000 for each.

But this time, Delowar couldn't get involved in the printing process. So, he asked binder Rabiul to do his bidding. He then made a Tk 1 lakh deal with Muktaruzzaman and Parvez and handed them the question paper on November 4.

Contacted, AUST Vice-Chancellor Prof Muhammad Fazli Ilahi said the professor was not part of any committee for the November 6 exams. But he was involved in several technical tasks like preparing the stickers used at exam halls.

"What the arrestee said in the statement, might be of earlier incidents when the professor was in the exam committees and tender procedures," said the VC.