RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi anti-corruption court turned down a request asking for the seven-day physical remand of five teachers accused of leaking an English language exam prepared by the Punjab Examination Commission (PEC), this Thursday.

A physical remand would have allowed investigators to interrogate the accused teachers. Instead, the court has sent the teachers to Adiala Jail on a 14-day judicial remand and has fixed the matter for May 9.

The anti-corruption establishment (ACE), Rawalpindi, produced the five teachers before special judge Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan and asked for a seven-day physical remand so that they may interrogate the teachers. However, their request was denied.

"We applied for a seven-day physical remand but the court rejected our request, saying that there is nothing recoverable from the accused and so there is no question of physical remand," said Mohammad Waseem, an investigator.

Speaking to Dawn after the hearing, he said that without questioning the teachers it would not be possible to determine who else was behind the scam.

ACE Rawalpindi arrested five teachers including a high school principal on Thursday, for their alleged involvement in leaking a fifth grade paper on February 9, a day before the test was supposed to be held in Rawalpindi.

They are accused of leaking the exam via SMS. PEC managed to replace the leaked paper with a new one on the same day.

On April 15, ACE registered a First Information Report (FIR) against eight teachers including three high school principals for leaking the question paper.

Those sent to Adiala Jail are Abbasi High School Principal Gulzar Hussain Raja, Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Asghar Raja, Zulfikar Ali and Javid Akhtar.

During the hearing, approximately two dozen teachers gathered outside the court to show solidarity with the accused teachers, claiming their innocence.