123 Malda: A teacher of a Cooch Behar primary school was arrested on Sunday by Malda police for his involvement in the tab fraud case. While total arrests have risen to 14, this is the first govt schoolteacher to be held in this connection.
According to police, Monojit Burman, who taught at Sitai Singmari State Plant Primary School, had at least 20 accounts in different banks. He used at least eight of these to receive the Taruner Swapna Scheme money. He allegedly hacked the Banglar Shiksha portal and edited the beneficiary account details to reflect his own. Burman also used bank accounts belonging to his brother and sister-in-law.
Burman was produced in a Malda court and taken into police custody for 10 days. Malda police superintendent Pradeep Yadav said: "His involvement was found both in terms of making changes to the portal and the money trail."
Two schools in Malda — Kendpukur High School and Konua High School — had reported that 91 and 36 students, respectively, were deprived of money for tablets. While CID took over two cases connected to one school, three stayed with the district police.
The teacher was the second person to be arrested by Malda police in the case. On Saturday, one Serajul Mia of Baishnabnagar in Malda was arrested in connection with the money trail of a Gazole school. He provided his own account details and withdrew the amount, keeping Rs 2,000 and giving the rest to another accused.
The police investigation revealed that the code and password initially provided by the education department were never changed by some schools, while ones that did change passwords made them so simple that hackers could easily crack them.