Three persons have been arrested here in Gujarat in connection with a paper leak case wherein the question paper of B.Com was leaked on social media hours before the commencement of the exam, the police said on Wednesday.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Amit Galani, Ajay Ladumor and Vivek Makwana.

Galani is the principal in-charge of G.L. Kakadia College of Commerce and Management, while Ladumor and Makwana are students of the college.

The arrests were made after a complaint was filed by Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University registrar Kaushik Bhatt, and an FIR was registered against the accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 406, 409, 120B, 114, and 34 and Information Technology Act's sections 72 and 72A.

The accused have been charged with criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy, breach of confidentiality and privacy, among other charges.

According to the FIR, Galani had torn open a packet of question papers hours before the exam was scheduled to begin, and clicked photos of the questions on his mobile phone.

He then handed his phone over to Srushti Borda, a B.Com student, who asked Vivek Makwana to click photos of the question papers from Galani's phone.

The investigation revealed that Borda wanted to send a copy of the question paper to her friend Ladumor.

However, the paper started circulating on social media after Makwana shared photos of the question paper he had clicked from the principal's phone with his friends.

"We arrested them at 6 p.m. on Tuesday after their reports for Covid-19 tests returned negative. We shall present them before a magistrate," Police Inspector P.D. Parma said. [IANS/NS]