UP Question Paper Leak: Police Draw Flak Following 3 Journalists’ Arrests

Lucknow: The arrest of three senior journalists for their alleged involvement in the UP Board’s class XII English question paper leak in Ballia district has evoked sharp reactions from the media fraternity in the state. 

Various journalists’ associations have condemned the arrest of three journalists – who were arrested and remanded in custody on March 30 – and have demanded that all charges against them be dropped.

The journalists have been identified as Ajit Kumar Ojha, Digvijay Singh who are associated with a leading Hindi daily Amar Ujala, while Manoj Gupta 'Jhabbu' works with Rashtriya Sahara in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia district. The local journalists claimed that Digvijay Singh and Ajit Kumar Ojha, the duo, had broken the news of the leak of the English Intermediate paper, forcing the district authorities to cancel the examination. The local administration, however, accused the reporters of being involved in the gang which leaked the paper and got them arrested.

"The media house is bowing down before the government directly, leaving its own reporters as a lamb in front of the bloodthirsty wolf. When the district magistrate claims that not a single packet of question papers has not been tampered with in Ballia, why has the UP Special Task Force (STF) swung into action to get to the root of the conspiracy and nexus behind the leak? When there was no tampering in the first place, on what basis were these people arrested?" asked Madhusudan Singh, an editor of the Ballia Express, while speaking to NewsClick.

As per Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP), class XII examination was scheduled to be held at 2 o'clock. The packet of question papers can be opened by an invigilator about 15 minutes before the examination. However, according to Singh, the DM issued a press release to the local journalists around 11:20 am, declaring cancellation of the examination due to a leak. "Now the question that arises is when the original envelope of the question paper is closed and has not been opened till the date of the examination, then on what basis did the district magistrate cancel the exam? From which source did he come to know that the paper that was leaked was the same as the one in the sealed envelope?” he questioned.

Singh further claimed that a group of local journalists on Saturday met Ballia district magistrate Indra Vikram Singh, who claimed that 211 envelopes had been examined so far, none of which had been tampered with. A second round of investigation by the board experts is underway.  

The local journalists’ body said that according to the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Act, a reporter is not responsible for the piece of news he has reported for the newspaper; it is the editor’s job to confirm the information before the news gets published. But Amar Ujala carried the leak story and now, when it should have been the time to take a stand for its reporters, the latter have been disowned as if they never worked for the publication.  

Another local journalist, Kauser Usman, who runs a website named Ballia Khabar told NewsClick:  "The administration should not have targeted the journalists without any evidence; rather, the school manager should have been held, which they did today. After interrogating the school administration, they could have called those journalists for interrogation, but arresting them is completely uncalled for." He also added that the media fraternity is not speaking up for the arrested reporters, except a few local journalists. 

Meanwhile, despite multiple attempts to reach Sandeep Singh, bureau chief of Amar Ujala, Ballia, he was unavailable for a comment.

Digvijay Singh, one of the three journalists who have been arrested by Ballia police, claimed on April 1 that he was held for not revealing the identity of his source to the police.

While speaking with reporters, Singh said that he had reported about the leak of the Sanskrit question paper’s answer key on March 29.

The next day, Amar Ujala reported about the English question paper leak too, Singh said, adding that he was held after that and “tortured” for not telling the police how he got access to the question papers.

The Uttar Pradesh Board’s class XII examination for English was cancelled in 24 of the state’s 75 districts on March 30, after the question paper got leaked. On March 29, on the first day of the examination itself, the answer key for the Sanskrit question paper of Class X had also been leaked.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had directed officials to take strict action, which includes charging the accused persons under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).

The police have made several arrests since then, including eight on Friday. Three separate first information reports have been registered at the Ballia City Kotwali, Nagara and Sikandarpur police stations.

This is the second recent incident of a leak in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, the question paper for the Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (UPTET) – a state-level teacher eligibility test mandatory for teachers who wish to teach primary or upper primary classes in the state board-affiliated schools – was leaked. The paper reportedly got leaked on a WhatsApp group. The Uttar Pradesh STF had then made several arrests using technical and other intelligence from different cities of the state.