PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
The main accused in the UKSSSC graduate-level examination paper leak case, Khalid Malik, told the police that he could not mark the correct answers in the OMR sheet on September 21 because he was unable to take out his mobile inside the room and was not allowed by the invigilator to visit the bathroom again.
He said that he filled the sheet on his own and left, the Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh said. He informed that Police have written to UKSSSC to verify his claim. The SSP said that the police found that Malik had handed his phone to his sister Sabia, who forwarded photos of the leaked questions to assistant professor Suman.
She sent the answers back but Malik could not access them in time. Sabia was arrested on September 23, followed by Malik and his mobile was sent for forensic analysis. Singh said that as per Malik, he had applied from four centres in Tehri and Haridwar districts, visited Adarsh Bal Sadan Inter College in Bahadurpur Jat before the examination and hid an iPhone 12 Mini in the under-construction building.
On exam day, he retrieved the device, photographed three pages of the paper and sent them out but avoided taking more pictures fearing detection. After seeing screenshots of the leaked questions on social media, he fled to Delhi and Lucknow, discarded SIMs, reset the phones and later returned to Haridwar, where police and STF detained him. The SSP said that no organised gang has been linked to the leak so far and further investigation is underway.
