A Dhaka court today framed charges against 126 people, including 87 expelled students of Dhaka University, in a case filed against them for their alleged involvement in question paper leak of the university’s Gha unit admission test in 2017.
One hundred of the accused, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasibul Haque read out the charges to them.
Charges were framed against 26 in their absence and arrest warrants were issued against them in the case filed with Shahbagh Police Station under the Public Examinations Law 1980.
The magistrate fixed March 30 for starting trial of the case.
On June 23 of 2019, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Sumon Kumar Das, also investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
During the investigation, CID had arrested 47 of the 126 suspects, including the alleged mastermind, Alip Kumar Biswas, a suspended assistant director of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan (BKSP).
Forty-six of them have already given statements before magistrates, confessing to their crimes on different dates.
In its very first raid at two DU dormitories, the CID arrested two BCL leaders — Mohiuddin Rana, an assistant secretary of the BCL central committee, and Abdullah Al Mamun, theatre and debate affairs secretary of BCL’s Amar Ekushey Hall unit — only hours before the university’s “Gha” unit admission test on October 20, 2017.
Both were expelled by the university authorities in January 2019.
In January of 2018, the DU authorities expelled 15 students over their involvement in leaking question papers and cheating in the university’s admission tests.
Job or admission seekers were given the answers via ear-pieces within a few minutes into the exams. The devices were supplied by the group, which had brought about a hundred digital communication devices from Mumbai, the investigators said.
In 2017, this racket leaked question papers of DU’s “Gha” unit admission test from a printing press in the capital’s Indira Road.
Some of the group members, led by Natore District Sports Officer Rakibul Hasan, used to leak questions hours before the admission tests, they mentioned.
Meantime, another charge sheet against 104 of the 126 accused under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act was also submitted. The case is now pending with the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal.
