Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Bhopal District and Sessions Court convicted three people in the MP Board paper leak case on Saturday. The convicts used Telegram channels and social media groups to circulate the leaked paper and would collect payment via BHIM and other e-wallet apps.
CJM Arum Kumar Singh ordered two years imprisonment under sections 420,419 of the IPC and 66 of the IT Act.
According to the public prosecutor, the convicts would use the fake logo of the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) on the question paper and send it to students in classes 10 and 12 on Telegram groups in exchange for Rs 1000 per paper.
Those who have been convicted include Kamlesh Gurjar, Kaushik Dubey, and Brijesh. Imprisonment of two years has been awarded for forgery and IT acts, respectively.
The crime branch cracked the MPBSE fake logo telegram group with the arrest of Kaushik Dubey of Mandideep. He had created a group on Telegram and used the logo of the Board of Secondary Education. He collected payments from around 600 people using BharatPe, an online payment app.
On March 4, 2023, the Controller of Examinations, Board of Secondary Education, Madhya Pradesh, filed a complaint at the Cyber Crime Branch in Bhopal that unidentified individuals had created a group on Telegram using the board's logo. The Madhya Pradesh board exams started on March 1, 2023.
The board official, in his complaint, said students are making payments using BharatPe. Based on the complaint, a case was registered against users of the Telegram group and the BharatPe wallet under Sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resources) of the IT Act.
Acting on the complaint, police arrested Kaushik Dubey, a resident of Mandideep, and recovered a bank passbook, a mobile phone, and two SIM cards that were used during the crime. Kaushik Dubey was demanding money in exchange for providing class 10 and 12 board exam papers. He obtained the question papers from another Telegram group called 'MP board help'. The others were arrested after the arrest of Kaushik Dubey.
