'VIP' copycat ring busted in TN

District Collector stops organised copying, suspends 7 invigilators

Seven invigilators at a SSLC (class X) exam centre in a private Matriculation school in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district were suspended after the District Collector stopped an attempted ‘organised copying’, just when the Mathematics examination was about to start.

Acting promptly on information that a copying racket was being “organized” for a “group of VIP students’ at the Government-aided Matriculation School in Tiruvannamalai, the District Collector Anshul Mishra and his squad walked in to bust it at the nick-of-time on Monday.

“Just before this X exam was to start, we caught these invigilators with chits on them sitting right in the Head Master’s room,” Mr Mishra told Deccan Herald over phone on Tuesday. Immediately, alternate people to vigil the exam were arranged it went off without any issue, he said.

What was shocking about the episode was one Supervisor in-charge of Monday’s Exam at the school was “caught with money”, the District Collector said. The Head Master and two of his office assistants are also under a cloud in the wake of this attempted “organised copying”, but so far there has been concrete evidence against only one person caught with cash.      “We took very cautious effort not to disturb the examination, nor the students taking it, as any disturbance in the schedule would have resulted in a large number of honest, well-prepared students being punished for no fault of theirs,” Mishra said in explaining the intricacies involved in this case.

The targeted ‘VIP students’ who were sought to be helped- with bits of paper containing vital information to answer the questions-, taking the assistance of some insiders are believed to be sons and daughters of other teachers and some top officers of the Education department in the district.

It was not an attempt at “mass copying” as only some VIP students were sought to be helped in that fashion, Mr Mishra said, adding, the Administration was contemplating a criminal case against those involved in the racket under the ‘Prevention of Corruption Act’.

In Chennai, when the issue rocked the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, the State School Education Minister, N R Sivapathy assured all that action will be taken against the erring school, adding, seven invigilators there had already been placed under suspension pending a thorough enquiry.