In a significant development regarding a suspected large-scale scam involving Class 12 public exams in Tamil Nadu, a CB-CID team arrested nine individuals, including four government employees, in Madurai on July 25, 2024. The arrests were made for allegedly altering the answer sheets of two Class 12 students in three subjects during the 2023 board exams.
Those arrested include superintendent Rama Prabakaran and junior assistant Kannan from the Madurai District Education Officer (Elementary) office, as well as Paramasivan, a government schoolteacher from Melur, and Karthick Raja, a lab assistant at Kottampatti government school. The parents of the two involved students, along with one of the students, were also arrested, while the second student remains at large.
The malpractice was uncovered in 2023 when an exam official noticed that the answer sheets of the two students displayed similar handwriting during a super check. Further investigation revealed identical handwriting across the answer sheets for mathematics, physics, and chemistry.
In response, the school education department issued memos to the students, questioning why they should not be barred for five years due to the malpractice, and withheld their mark sheets. Initially, the students insisted their answer sheets were authentic but later retracted their claims.
One parent took the matter to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, seeking to quash the memo and compel the department to issue his son’s mark sheet. The court directed the Tallakulam police to register a formal case based on a complaint from the joint director (higher secondary), which was subsequently transferred to the CB-CID in November 2023. Another parent filed a similar petition, but the court dismissed it.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Kannan and Prabakaran, with the help of Paramasivan and Karthick Raja, had replaced the students’ answer sheets for a payment of Rs1 lakh per paper. Handwriting analysis indicated that one of the government staff members’ handwriting matched that on the answer sheets. The answer sheets have been sent for further analysis.