BUET Teacher Charged over Bank Recruitment Question Leak

In a case filed over the question paper leak of the bank recruitment test in 2021, an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka on Monday laid accusations against 16 persons, including professor Nikhil Ranjan Dhar of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

The court's magistrate, Md. Tofazzal Hossain, issued the ruling after denying the accused's requests to have the allegations against them dropped.

On November 6, 2021, a test for five state-owned banks' hiring processes was held.

Following the question leak on November 10 of the same year, sub-inspector Sukant Biswas of the Tejgaon Zonal Team reported the incident to the police at Badda Police Station under the Public Examinations (Offenses) Act.

On November 21 of that year, BUET terminated Prof. Nikhil Ranjan Dhar of his duties as the department's head of industrial and production engineering as well as all exam-related duties.

Authorities from BUET contacted Nikhil in December 2021 and demanded an explanation for his role in the leak of the recruitment exam questions for five Banks.

Shamim Ahmed, a sub-inspector of the Detective Branch (DB) and the case's investigative officer, presented the charge sheet on November 16, 2022, leaving Prof. Nikhil off the list of defendants.

A Dhaka court ordered the investigative officer to give justification for why and how he dropped the charges against Prof. Nikhil earlier this year.

A follow-up charge against Nikhil was then presented to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka by investigating officer Shamim.