Source of leaked question paper still unknown, seven held over youth development recruitment test leak

Photo: Collected

Special Response Battalion (SRB)-3 has arrested seven people over the leak of the question paper for the recruitment examination for the post of assistant youth development officer; five of them are employees of various government offices. A preliminary investigation has found that between Tk 8 lakh and Tk 10 lakh was realised from examinees in exchange for supplying the questions and their answers. The investigation team, however, has not yet been able to identify the original source of the question paper leak.

Lieutenant Colonel Fayezul Arefin, commanding officer of SRB-3, disclosed this information at a press conference held on Friday afternoon at the SRB media centre at Karwan Bazar in the capital.

Fayezul Arefin said the selection examination for 242 vacant posts of assistant youth development officer under the Department of Youth Development was scheduled to be held on 10 October, and 319,000 job seekers had applied for it. Although the examination was to begin at 11:00am, the authorities postponed it after the question paper leak was confirmed at 10:03am that day. A case was filed with Motijheel police station by the department the next day, on 11 October, after which the SRB launched a shadow investigation.

In the course of the investigation, seven people were arrested in raids conducted in the capital and surrounding areas between 14 and 16 October. They are Md Rubel Islam, a data entry operator of the Department of Environment; job seekers Mofizul Islam and Hasinur Rahman Sujan; S M Imdadul Islam, a computer operator of the National Board of Revenue (NBR); Asadul Islam, an office assistant of the Ministry of Defence; and Nur Mohammad, an office assistant of the NBR, and Jahangir, a computer operator.

Describing the sequence of the arrests, the SRB-3 commanding officer said Rubel, Mofizul and Sujan were picked up from the Motijheel area on 14 October. Acting on information given by them, Imdadul was arrested from Uttarkhan and, with the help of SRB-4, Asadul was arrested from Mirpur-10. On the basis of information found by reviewing the phone conversations and chats of the arrested persons, Nur Mohammad was arrested from Savar on 15 October, and on the basis of information and evidence obtained from him, Jahangir was arrested from Mohammadpur on 16 October.

According to information related to the investigation, a blurred photograph of the question paper reached Nur Mohammad through a source at 4:43am on 10 October. Jahangir then sent him a clear photograph of the question paper at 6:15am. Nur Mohammad prepared the answers to the questions and sent them to Jahangir and Imdadul, and from there the question paper and the answers were delivered to other members of the ring and the examinees linked to them. The investigation has found that Asadul, Rubel, Mofizul and Sujan were involved in this work.

Members of the ring kept in touch with one another on WhatsApp using fake identities. Although the arrested persons claimed they had obtained the question paper through Facebook, this could not be verified yet; the investigation team is examining the Facebook groups and IDs they mentioned. Alongside identifying the original source of the question paper, efforts are also under way to find out who else was involved in the incident.

Asked whether any officer or employee of the Department of Youth Development was involved in the incident, Lieutenant Colonel Fayezul Arefin said no information about the direct involvement of anyone from that department had been found so far. However, information about the involvement of employees of other government offices has been found and more information may emerge in the investigation.

Seized from the arrested persons were one set of the question paper, 19 pages of admit cards for various examinations, 116 stamps of Tk 100 and four of Tk 50, 48 pages of cheques of various banks and one bank cheque, certificates of various categories, six national identity cards, eight mobile phones and Tk 4,000 in cash.

Meanwhile, the recruitment examination for the post of assistant youth development officer was held on Friday. During the examination, a mobile court sentenced an examinee named Reshma Akter to one month’s simple imprisonment for resorting to unfair means at the Begum Badrunnesa Government Girls’ College centre in the capital.