Gujarat Technological University: Teacher caught SMSing paper to students, suspended

Updated on: Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What happens when your college teacher also takes your tuition classes? Paper leaks and undue favours become distinct possibilities. A paper leak racket was busted at the government engineering college in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

The incident took place when exams for semester V and VII were being conducted by the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) at various colleges across the state. A teacher, Ankit Mehta, who was deputed as an exam observer, was caught sending a question and its answer to four students and another teacher by SMS, right before the exam was scheduled to begin.

Fate of Tuesday's exams now hangs in balance. GTU officials are likely to take a decision in this regard on Wednesday. "The procedure that is followed by GTU at all its exam centres is, the exam observers are given a password to unlock the online question paper section of the GTU website 40 minutes before the test begins," said a GTU official.

Once Mehta, teacher at Alpha Engineering College of Ahmedabad, got the password, he gave it to the college principal. But he also accessed the question paper and started sending SMSs from his mobile phone. He messaged four of his students and also a teacher at his college, Nirav Gadhiya. Investigations have revealed that all the four students take tuitions from him, said GTU officials. Mehta is a lecturer of computer and Gadhiya of Information Technology in the same college.

GTU officials believe that this paper-leak network is much larger than just four students and a teacher. "Last year too we had doubts that the questions were being leaked. All exam centre officials were told to keep a watch," said GTU officials.

On Tuesday when Mehta was busy sending SMSs, the principal of the government engineering college in Gandhinagar, M N Shah, snatched his mobile phone. "Mehta had by then sent a question worth six marks and was keying in another worth seven marks. In those 40 minutes the students would have enough time to prepare for these questions. We suspect that it was not first such inident," said a GTU official.

Shah intimated the GTU and Mehta was brought to its office near Gujarat University for questioning. "Both Mehta and Gadhiya confessed that they had sent the messages to four students of different colleges. They have given their confessions in writing. We have registered a police complaint," said GTU registrar, G P Vadodaria.

Times of India

Gujarat Technological University: Teacher caught SMSing paper to students, suspended

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