Staff Reporter :
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested a machine operator of the Directorate General of Health Education (DGHE) on charges of leaking medical and dental admission test question papers.
A team of CID’s Cyber police unit arrested the operator, Abdus Salam, from Dhaka’s Banasree area on Monday, Special Superintendent of CID
Ashraful Alam told reporters at a press briefing at the agency’s headquarters. One of the masterminds of the question-leak gang, Salam went into hiding after CID arrested five members of the outfit on July 19, he said.
After arresting five accused in July, CID said the question papers of medical and dental admission tests were leaked repeatedly from the printing press under the DGHE.
According to CID, Salam used to leak questions from the press for many years, with help from influential department officials. Another accused, Jasim-who was arrested during July 19 drive-used to spread the leaked questions all over the country using a strong network.
Through this, they have embezzled crores of money, CID officials said, adding that hundreds of students got enrolled into medical and dental colleges through this gang.
The officials said they came to know through multiple sources that these question papers were printed from the press under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) since 1988, and members of this ring were somehow linked to the printing press. The DGHE, previously a bureau under the DGHS, continued employing the same printing press after it was formed as a separate body.
CID said the accused are members of an organised gang that used to supply these papers digitally before exams between 2013 and 2018, in exchange for hefty amounts of money.
They found at least 50 people in the racket across the country. In 2015, medical tests were marred with allegations of question leaks, followed by weeks of protests demanding retakes. However, no action was taken.
The racket came to the spotlight while CID was investigating question leaks at Dhaka University’s admission test in 2017, and found another ring in 2018.
