USTM chancellor, 5 teachers sent to judicial custody on charges of ‘promising’ unfair means in exams

The chancellor of the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM), Mahbabul Haque, arrested on charges of promising students to allow unfair means in exams, has been remanded to judicial custody by a local court in Sribhumi district of Assam. Haque, along with five teachers of a school in Pathakandi of the district, were sent to 14 days judicial custody after a late-night hearing by the local court on Saturday, advocates appearing in the case said.

The USTM chancellor, who also runs the ERD Foundation that operates various educational institutions, including a school in Patharkandi, was arrested from his Guwahati residence in the early hours on Saturday and taken to Sribhumi. The five teachers of the school were also arrested after allegations emerged on Friday that students from other districts were appearing for their Class-12 CBSE board exams there, following “assurance of use of unfair means for them to score high marks”.