Question leak: 7 arrested, 48 cheque leaves seized

The Special Response Battalion (SRB) has arrested seven members of a ring over the leak of the Department of Youth Development’s recruitment exam question paper, including staff of government offices.

The SRB said those arrested include officials and employees of the Department of Environment, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Ministry of Defence.

The SRB seized one set of the question paper, admit cards of various exams, Tk 100 and Tk 50 stamps, bank cheques, certificates, national ID cards, eight mobile phones and cash from them.

Lt Col Fayezul Arefin, commander of SRB-3, disclosed this at a briefing at the SRB Media Centre at 3:30PM on Friday (October 16).

He said a screening test for 242 vacancies of assistant youth development officer in the department was due on October 10. A total of 3.19 lakh candidates had applied. The exam was set to begin at 11:00 AM. The authorities postponed it after confirming the leak at 10:03AM that day.

The Department of Youth Development filed a case with Motijheel Police Station on October 11.

The SRB then began a shadow investigation. After intelligence inquiries and raids, it arrested seven people from different areas of the capital between October 14 and 16.

The SRB-3 commander said the investigation found an organised ring involved in collecting the question paper, preparing the answers and distributing the questions to various people. The preliminary probe found that members of the ring used fake identities on WhatsApp.

Those arrested are Md Rubel Islam (33), a data entry operator at the Department of Environment; job seeker Md Mofizul Islam (23); Md Hasinur Rahman Sujon (32); SM Imdadul Islam (35), a computer operator at the NBR; Asadul Islam (33), an office assistant at the Ministry of Defence; Noor Mohammad (30), an office assistant at the NBR; and Jahangir (38), a computer operator at the NBR.

According to the SRB, Rubel, Mofizul and Sujon were arrested from the Motijheel area on October 14. Imdadul and Asadul were then arrested from Uttarkhan and Mirpur-10, based on information from the first three and a review of their mobile phone chats. SRB-4 arrested Noor Mohammad from Savar on October 15. Jahangir was arrested from Mohammadpur on October 16.

Lt Col Fayezul Arefin said the preliminary probe found information on the ring’s financial transactions through Rubel and Mofizul. Mofizul is also a job seeker. The SRB said he had been cheated of Tk 17 lakh by a member of the ring. The preliminary probe found that he later joined the ring hoping to earn more. The SRB said they were arrested while exchanging money related to recruitment deals.

The SRB said it learned about the timing of the leak and how the paper was distributed by reviewing the chats on the arrestees’ phones.

The SRB-3 commander claimed Noor Mohammad received a blurry photo of the question paper from a source at around 4:43AM on October 10. At 6:15AM, Jahangir sent him a clear photo.

Noor Mohammad then prepared the answers and sent them to Jahangir and Imdadul, the preliminary probe found. The questions and answers were later delivered to various examinees through other members of the ring, the SRB said. It said Rubel, Mofizul, Sujon and Asadul were involved in this.

The seized items include 116 stamps of Tk 100, four stamps of Tk 50, 19 pages of admit cards of various exams, 10 certificates, 48 pages of cheques of various banks and one bank cheque. The SRB also seized 15 more certificates of various categories, six national ID cards, eight mobile phones and Tk 4,000 in cash.

The SRB said legal action has been taken against the arrestees. The investigation into the source of the leak, other members of the ring and the related financial transactions is continuing.


-EM