MD's office assistant leaked Biman's recruitment test questions: Detectives

Detectives have found direct involvement of an office assistant to the managing director of Biman Bangladesh Airlines in leaking question papers of a recruitment test for 12 posts at the national flag carrier last month.

According to the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), the hour-long test, scheduled for 21 October, was postponed following the leaks.

The Lalbagh unit of the DB arrested 10 people in this connection and nine of them admitted their involvement before the court.

"According to their confessions, the question papers were leaked by an office assistant to Biman's managing director," said DB chief Harun-ur-Rashid at a press briefing at the DMP's media centre on Thursday.

The arrestees also told the court that the questions were leaked with the direct support of several senior officials of the national flag carrier, he added.

Asked if the managing director himself was involved, Harun-ur-Rashid parried the question.

He said the office assistant, Zahid Hossain, leaked questions from the managing director's office. "There is a committee to conduct recruitment tests properly. But they did not perform their duties properly."

The DB chief said evidence was found about transactions of about Tk50 lakh and added that the accused even collected signatures on non-judicial stamp papers to misappropriate lands from job seekers.

Besides, 32 blank cheques and 17 non-judicial stamps from different banks, 14 mobile phones, three motorbikes, three diaries, hard and soft copies of leaked question papers, and 54 admit cards of the recruitment test were seized from the arrestees.

The Detective Branch and the National Security Intelligence (NSI) in a joint drive arrested five Biman officials – Md Jahangir Alam, Mohammad Mahfuz Alam Bhuiyan, Md Enamul Haque, Aolad Hossain, and Harunur Rashid - on 21 October.

Five others – Md Masud, Jahid Hasan, Shomaju alias Sobhan, Javed Hossain, and Jakir Hossain – were later arrested from different parts of the capital.

Referring to statements made by the arrestees, the DB chief said that the question papers were prepared in the admin's room of the examination committee. From there, someone took a picture of the question paper. On 20 October, Biman's logo was removed from the paper and 80 questions were ticked and shared with two others.

Again, MD's office assistant Zahid Hossain was given the responsibility of photocopying the summary questions on 19 October. He took the smartphone with him and took the picture during photocopying and sent it to Sobhan.

Sobhan shared the questions with several others.