Dubai: An employee in a university’s IT department has been accused of taking Dh7,500 in bribes to leak exam papers to a media student by sending them to him on WhatsApp.
The 32-year-old Omani student, A.S., was said to have paid Dh500 for 15 exam papers [Dh7,500 in total] to the 29-year-old Indian IT employee, R.K., in return of leaking the papers to him in June.
Prosecutors accused the employee of abusing his work in the IT department and taking bribe to leak the exams to the student, who was charged with paying bribe.
The duo entered a not guilty plea and refuted their bribery accusations before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.
“No sir … I did not,” R.K. told courtroom three.
His alleged crime accomplice, A.S. argued before presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat: “That didn’t happen. He did not provide me any exam paper.”
An Egyptian dean at the university testified to prosecutors that they were informed that some of the exam papers had been leaked.
“We took our precautions and changed most of the exam papers. Then we summoned all the IT staff for an internal investigation. We asked them how well connected they were with the students to find out the truth. When we asked them about the exams’ leakage, we noticed that R.K. was confused. Upon asking him face-to-face if he had leaked any exam papers, he confessed immediately. He claimed that he leaked 15 exam papers of different topics to the media student. R.K. confessed that he communicated with A.S. and leaked the papers to him via SMSs and WhatsApp. The IT employee also signed a written confession,” claimed the dean.
The Indian suspect was cited admitting during prosecution questioning that he collected the Dh7,500 in two payments in Sharjah.
Prosecution records said 103 photos of the exam papers were found on A.S.’s mobile phone that was examined by Dubai Police’s forensic laboratory.
Lawyers will present their defence arguments once the court hears prosecution witnesses on October 30.
