In a significant development in what is suspected to be a large-scale scam involving Class 12 public exams in Tamil Nadu, a CB-CID team arrested nine individuals, including four government employees, in Madurai on 25 July 2024. The arrests were made for allegedly altering the answer sheets of two Class 12 students in three subjects during the 2023 board exams.
According to sources from the CB-CID, those arrested include superintendent Rama Prabakaran and junior assistant Kannan from the Madurai District Education Officer (Elementary) office; Paramasivan, a government schoolteacher from Melur; Karthick Raja, a lab assistant at Kottampatti government school; the parents of the two students, and one of the students involved. Authorities are still searching for the second student, who is currently on the run. Both students attended a private school in Madurai city.
The malpractice came to light in 2023 when an exam official noticed that the answer sheets of the two students had similar handwriting during a super check. Further investigation revealed the same handwriting across answer sheets for mathematics, physics, and chemistry.
The school education department responded by issuing memos to the students, questioning why they should not be barred for five years due to the malpractice. Their mark sheets were also withheld. Initially, the students maintained that their answer sheets were genuine but later retracted their statements.
One of the parents took the matter to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, seeking to quash the memo and compel the department to issue the mark sheet to his son. The court directed Tallakulam police to register a formal case based on a complaint from the joint director (higher secondary), which was later transferred to the CB-CID in November 2023. Another parent filed a similar petition, but the court dismissed it.
During the investigation, police discovered that Kannan and Prabakaran, with assistance from Paramasivan and Karthick Raja, had replaced the students’ answer sheets for a payment of ₹1 lakh per paper. Handwriting analysis revealed that one of the four government staff members’ handwriting matched that on the answer sheets. The answer sheets have been sent for further analysis, sources said to TNIE.
TAMILNADU 12th EXAM SCAM 🚨
TN Govt Received 1 Lakh & Exchanged the Answer sheet for a Particular Student who wrote the exam.
Will TN Govt now ban the 12th exam like NEET as they are demanding central Govt ? #DMKFailsTN | #Annamalai | @annamalai_k pic.twitter.com/EVxL2HuOKO
— ᴋᴀʀᴛʜɪ (@SaffronTweetz) July 27, 2024
(with inputs from TNIE)
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