A flying squad of Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) constituted to curb exam malpractices Monday detected a case of mass cheating at a school in the Daund taluka of Pune district during the ongoing Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination.
ZP officials said a criminal offence has been registered against nine office bearers and teachers at the school and that the names of students participating in mass copying have been notified to the HSC board.
The incident of mass cheating came to light at around 12.15 pm Monday at the Jawaharlal Secondary and Higher Secondary School in Kedgaon village during the Physics exam. A three-member flying squad that went to the school on a surprise visit found that a large number of students were in possession of books, photocopies of pages of books, and their torn pages and were using them to cheat in the exam.
Flying squad head Kisan Bhujbal registered the FIR with the Yawat police under Pune Rural jurisdiction late on Monday. Bhujbal said in his FIR, “As we started taking rounds of the exam halls, many students who got to know of our presence suddenly threw away the copying material outside the exam hall or scattered it in the exam hall. When we confronted the exam centre office bearers and teaching staffers about it, they had no explanation.”
Pune ZP Chief Executive Officer Ayush Prasad said, “We have filed an FIR against persons who are suspected to have aided and abetted mass cheating. We have seized and handed over the cheating material to the police. We have not filed a case against any student. An intimation to the HSC Board has been sent about the students.”
Officials did not specify the number of students who were suspected to have cheated in the Physics exam.
Those named in the FIR include the exam centre director and deputy director and seven teachers who were tasked with checking the students at the entry. The police have invoked the sections of the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University, Board and Other Specified Exams Act, 1982.
“The Pune Zilla Parishad has coordinated with the police department and municipal corporations to strictly enforce the Copy Mukt Abhiyan of the state government. We have also been providing study material, exam paper analysis, and testing material to schools. We have held several rounds of meetings with schools to help improve academic performance,” Prasad added.
The HSC or the Class 12 board exam of the Maharashtra State Board is currently underway from February 21 to March 27.
