Mastermind of ‘question leak gang’ placed on 5-day remand

A Dhaka court today placed a machine operator of the Directorate General of Health Education (DGHE) on five-day remand on charges of leaking medical and dental admission test question papers.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Tofazzal Hossain passed the order after Kazi Abu Sayeed, a senior assistant superintendent of police of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, produced Abdus Salam before the court with a 10-day remand prayer.

In the forwarding report, the IO said four other accused gave confessional statements which shows Salam's involvement as the mastermind behind leaking question papers.

No lawyer was present in the court to defend him.

A team of CID's Cyber police unit arrested the operator, Abdus Salam, from Dhaka's Banasree area yesterday, Special Superintendent of CID Ashraful Alam told reporters at a press briefing at the agency's headquarters.

One of the masterminds of the question-leak gang, Salam went into hiding after CID arrested five members of the outfit on July 19, he said.

After arresting five accused in July, CID said the question papers of medical and dental admission tests were leaked repeatedly from the printing press under the DGHE.

According to CID, Salam used to leak questions from the press for many years, with help from influential department officials. Another accused, Jasim -- who was arrested during July 19 drive -- used to spread the leaked questions all over the country using a strong network.

Earlier on July 19, CID arrested SM Sanwar Hossain, who provided information about leaked papers of medical and dental admission tests in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Based on his information, a CID team conducted raids in different areas of Mirpur on the same day and arrested Jasim Uddin Chowdhury Munnu, ringleader of the gang, Samiul Zafar, Parvez Khan and Jakir Hossain Dipu in this connection.

The following day, CID filed a case with Mirpur Police Station against them and several unknown people involved with the incident.

Later, they were remanded for different terms and they gave confessional statements before magistrates on different dates.