Answer sheets to be put to forensic test

At least nine arrests have been made in the case till now,including that of alleged kingpins Ashwani Kumar Dogra and Suresh Chaudhary who ran private academies where candidates enrolled as private students paid Rs 10,000 to 15,000 each for a ghost writer to take the examinations.

“We have interrogated some of the suspects who allegedly wrote the papers for these students who passed without appearing for the exams. We have taken specimen signatures of the suspects and these will be compared with the writing samples on the examination sheets at the state police’s forensic science laboratory,” said Gandhi.

Meanwhile,the independent three-member committee appointed by the government to probe the functioning of the board has returned from Dharamsala.

Director,Industries,Onkar Sharma,who heads the probe committee,is expected to submit his report shortly. He said: “It appears that there was a lot of lacunae in functioning of the board and a lot of people have taken advantage of the shortcomings,leading to the scam.”

Stokes seeks probe

SHIMLA: Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes has sought a judicial probe into the examination scam that surfaced in the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education recently. In a statement issued on Tuesday,Stokes said: “The government should order a judicial inquiry by a sitting or retired High Court judge into the scandal and immediately remove the board chairperson,C L Gupta.”