Seven people, including five government employees, have been arrested by SRB-3 in connection with the question paper leak of recruitment examination for the post of assistant youth development officer under Department of Youth Development.
 
Commander of SRB-3 Lieutenant Colonel Fayezul Arefin disclosed this information at a press conference held at the SRB media centre in Karwan Bazar, Dhaka, on Friday afternoon.
 
Arrested government employees include a data entry operator of Department of Environment, a computer operator of National Board of Revenue (NBR), and an office assistant of Ministry of Defence.
 
They were identified as Md Rubel Islam, 33, data entry operator of the Department of Environment; Md Mafizul Islam, 23, a job seeker; Md Hasinur Rahman Sujon, 32, a job seeker; SM Imdadul Islam, 35, computer operator at the NBR; Asadul Islam, 33, office assistant of the Ministry of Defence; Noor Mohammad, 30, office assistant of the NBR; and Jahangir, 38, computer operator at the NBR.
 
The preliminary screening examination for 242 vacant posts of assistant youth development officer was scheduled for 10 October, for which 3,19,000 candidates had applied. Although the test was set to begin at 11am, authorities postponed the examination after confirming the question paper leak at 10:03 am that day. Following the incident, the Department of Youth Development filed a case at Motijheel Police Station on 11 October, and SRB launched a shadow investigation.
 
Chain of arrests
During operations conducted across various parts of the capital on 14, 15, and 16 October, SRB arrested the seven suspects. On 14 October, Rubel Islam, Mafizul Islam, and Hasinur Rahman Sujon were arrested from Motijheel.
 
Based on information provided by them, Imdadul Islam was arrested from Uttarkhan, and Asadul Islam was arrested from Mirpur-10 with assistance from SRB-4.
 
Subsequent analysis of mobile phone conversations and chats led SRB-4 to arrest Noor Mohammad from Savar on 15 October, while Jahangir was arrested from Mohammadpur on 16 October based on information and evidence obtained from Noor Mohammad.
 
Investigative findings revealed that the gang used fake identities on WhatsApp to conduct their activities and charged Tk8 lakh to Tk10 lakh from each candidate.
 
Analysis of mobile chat records showed that Noor Mohammad first received an unclear photograph of the question paper through a source at 4:43am on 10 October, and Jahangir sent him a clear picture of the paper at 6:15am.
 
Noor Mohammad then prepared answers to the questions and sent them to Jahangir and Imdadul, after which Asadul, Rubel, Mafizul, and Sujon helped deliver the question paper and answers to gang members and candidate job seekers connected with them.
 
Main source unidentified
Law enforcement officers seized a large quantity of materials from the arrested persons, including 116 stamps of Tk100 denomination, four stamps of Tk50, one set of question papers, 19 pages of exam admit cards, 10 certificates, 48 pages of bank cheque books, one bank cheque, eight mobile phones, 15 certificates of various categories, six national identity cards, and Tk4,000 in cash.
 
The commander of SRB-3 explained that Mafizul Islam had originally joined the gang in hopes of earning more money after being cheated by a member of the gang, adding that information regarding money transactions related to recruitment trading also surfaced during the investigation.
 
Despite these arrests, the primary source of the leaked question paper remains unidentified.
 
Although Noor Mohammad and Jahangir claimed to have obtained the question paper via Facebook, the investigation team does not consider their information reliable, though the mentioned Facebook groups and IDs are being verified.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Fayezul Arefin said efforts are ongoing to determine main source of the leak, noting that no direct involvement of any official or employee from Department of Youth Development has been found so far.