During interrogation, the scrap dealer admitted that he purchased the evaluated answer sheets from Chattu Singh for Rs 8000. Photo: Rohit Kumar Singh

Almost a week after more than 42,000 evaluated answer sheets of Class 10th of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) went missing from the storage room of S.S Girls Inter College in Gopalganj, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was set up to probe the case has made a breakthrough and arrested a scrap dealer to whom the answer sheets were sold for Rs 8,000 by the peon of the college, Chattu Singh.

An autorickshaw driver, Santosh Kumar, who worked for the scrap dealer, has also been arrested. He transported the answer sheets from the college to the scrap dealer's shop.

The peon was arrested on June 19, soon after the college headmaster Pramod Srivastava lodged an FIR against him and the night guard for their alleged role in the case. However, the headmaster, too, was arrested the same evening after the Bihar Board officials registered an FIR against him for his involvement in the case. All three were sent to Gopalganj jail thereafter.

The breakthrough was made after the SIT, which was carrying searches at the various scrap dealers in Gopalganj, picked up Pappu Kumar Gupta, a scrap dealer in Haziapur locality and questioned him.

During interrogation, the scrap dealer admitted that he purchased the evaluated answer sheets from Chattu Singh for Rs 8,000. He also named auto rickshaw driver who transported the answer sheets and was part of the conspiracy. The police have arrested both.

According to sources, the SIT has recovered most of the answer sheets from the scrap dealer's shop which had gone missing.

"Chattu Singh used to sell the answer sheets to the scrap dealer every year since 2014. However, the matter came to light only this year when the Bihar Board officials came to verify the answer sheets of few students. The scrap dealer and his associate have been arrested and sent to jail. Further investigations are going on in this case," said Zama Rashid, SP Gopalganj.

It may be noted that the Class 10th results of the Bihar Board was scheduled to be declared on June 20 but with the missing answer sheets controversy coming to light a day earlier, the declaration of results were postponed for June 26.