RAWALPINDI, March 28: The recovery of solved answer sheets from a teacher on Sunday night has rocked the administration of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Rawalpindi. A police party patrolling the Kallar Road arrested Waqar Satti, who teaches in a private school in Rawat, on Sunday night and recovered 522 solved answer sheets of English, computer science, biology, and education subjects for the annual examination of secondary school certificate. The BISE had established a three-member committee to probe the incident.

The arrested teacher said he got the sheets from Zahir Shah, an owner of a private school in Kahuta. He was to return all the solved answer sheets after improving the ‘contents’ for Rs10,000. A case of theft and abetment has been registered against the teacher.

The sheets, collected from the examination centre of Govt Boys High School, Phaghral, were deposited with the branch of United Bank in Chowk Pindorian on Kallar Road.

SHO Rawat Chaudhry Mehdi Khan said police would obtain physical remand of Waqar and Jahangir Khan, the driver of Mehran car carrying the six sealed bundles of the solved sheets, on Tuesday. He said another man in the car escaped the arrest due to darkness.

Police are also searching for Zahir Shah, and a guard and a peon of the bank for their alleged involvement in getting the sheets out of the bank. “They will be arrested soon,” the SHO said.

According to the rules of the examination body, solved sheets are sent to the nearby authorised bank in an hour after the exams’ time ends. Within 48 hours, the solved answer sheets are submitted with the secrecy branch in BISE office at 6th Road in Rawalpindi for marking.

The English paper was held on March 21, computer science on March 24, education on March 25 and paper for biology was conducted on March 26 in the same examination centre but the answer sheets were not taken to the BISE office in Rawalpindi city.

Abdul Sattar Ramay, BISE controller examination, said Mohammad Arif, a clerk of secrecy branch, has been suspended.

The BISE official said the board has written a letter to the bank’s management to explain where the solved answer sheets were kept. “I visited the bank’s branch on Monday and was informed that the sheets were kept in a room that was locked from outside, instead of keeping them in locker,” he said. Mr Ramay said he found the clothes of the guard and the peon in the room, adding they also used to prepare tea there.

About the fate of the recovered answer sheets, the controller said the matter would be referred to the BISE’s disciplinary committee to examine the handwriting. In case of “discrepancy and duplication”, cases of unfair means would be prepared. —Our Reporter