Law college vice-principal among three arrested for exam paper leak

Bengaluru: A vice-principal of a law college was among three people arrested for allegedly leaking a law exam question paper, Bengaluru police officials said.

The accused are MV Nagaraj, vice-principal of Basavashree College of Law in Kolar, his driver Varun Kumar, who was also a law student at the college, and another student, Jagadish V.

“These people leaked the question paper via WhatsApp and Telegram for monetary gain,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda said during a weekly press briefing on Tuesday.

The case came to light after Vishwanatha KN, Chairman and Member of Vigilance Squad-2, filed a complaint on January 30. He flagged those questions from the Contract Law-I Paper that had surfaced on social media ahead of the January 23 exam conducted across Karnataka’s law colleges, affiliated with the Karnataka State Law University (KSLU).

The investigation, led by officers from the Central Crime Branch’s Cyber Crime Police Station under DCP (Crime) Hakay Akshay Machindra, traced the leak back to Nagaraj, who was the official custodian of the question papers. He was arrested along with his accomplices from Anekal and Chintamani in Kolar.

“Nagaraj was responsible for the leak, while the other two forwarded the questions to multiple groups,” a senior police officer told DH.

During interrogation, Nagaraj claimed he leaked the paper to improve the college’s pass percentage. However, the police suspect financial motives and have expanded their probe.

Investigators found that Varun Kumar, with Nagaraj’s consent, had transferred the question papers from the vice-principal’s phone to his own before distributing them via messenger apps. 

Jagadish, meanwhile, accessed the question papers a day before the exam from the college’s storage area, copied them, and sold them for money.

"Depending on the agreed price, the suspects would share two, five, or 10 questions," an officer said. The police are now working to identify those who benefited from the leak, the total amount involved, and whether more people were part of the racket.