Mumbai police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against a private tuition teacher from Borivli for allegedly orchestrating the leak of a question paper during a national-level mathematics proficiency examination held on Sunday. The case involves a 14-year-old student who appeared for the exam under a fabricated identity at a centre in Gorai.
The Suspicious Activity During the Exam
The incident unfolded at one of the examination centres in Gorai, where the annual maths proficiency test for students of Classes 5, 7, and 8 was being conducted. The exam, organized by a mathematics forum, requires candidates to pre-register online and pay a fee to receive a hall ticket. On the day, 139 students were assigned to four rooms from noon to 2 pm.
Around 1:30 pm, a supervisor in one of the rooms grew suspicious of a candidate's repeated trips to the washroom, each time carrying the question paper. Upon frisking the boy, officials discovered a mobile phone in his possession. An immediate check of the device revealed a shocking breach: the student had been actively photographing and sending the question paper to a WhatsApp group since the exam began at noon.
Unraveling the Fake Identity and the Teacher's Role
When confronted, the boy's story began to crumble. His hall ticket bore a fake name, and he provided false phone numbers for his parents. He also lied about the name of his school and refused to disclose his date of birth. The centre's principal promptly took him to the Borivli police station to file a complaint.
The plot thickened when a woman arrived at the police station, claiming to be the boy's mother. However, she failed to produce any proof of identity, such as an Aadhaar card copy, to substantiate her claim. Subsequent police investigations exposed the truth: the woman was not his mother but his private tuition teacher. The 14-year-old was actually a Class 9 student from a school in Malad.
The tuition teacher, who instructs in maths and English at a coaching class, had allegedly persuaded the teenager to appear for the lower-grade proficiency exam using a fake identity. The boy's parents were completely unaware of this scheme. Police confirmed the teacher had instructed the student to leak the paper, and he claimed he was sending the images to his "rakhi sister."
Exam Protocol and Legal Consequences
The standard procedure for the exam involves question papers and candidate lists being sent to centres two days in advance. On exam day, staff verify each student's hall ticket against the official list before granting entry. This case highlights a deliberate attempt to bypass these security measures.
An FIR has now been formally lodged against the tuition teacher. The legal proceedings will examine charges related to cheating, impersonation, and criminal conspiracy. The incident has raised serious concerns about the integrity of competitive exams and the unethical pressures some private tutors may place on students.
