Online Desk: A Dhaka court today accepted the charges against Buet Prof Nikhil Ranjan Dhar in a case filed over the question paper leak of bank recruitment exams in November 2021. After accepting the supplementary charge sheet submitted against Nikhil Dhar, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Shahidul Islam issued an arrest warrant against him. The magistrate directed the officer-in-charge of Keshobpur Police Station of Jashore district to submit by March 9 the progress report on the execution of the arrest warrant in the case.

On January 31, Prof Nikhil was charged with involvement in bank recruitment question paper leak even though the investigation officer (IO) had earlier dropped his name from the charge sheet. IO Shamim Ahmed, a sub-inspector of the Detective Branch (DB), on November 16 last year submitted a charge sheet, excluding Prof Nikhil as an accused. Prof Nikhil was charged after a Dhaka court summoned IO Shamim to show cause why and how he relieved Prof Nikhil from the charges.

The case was filed with Badda Police Station under the Public Examinations (Offences) Act in November 2021. Following the question leak in recruitment tests of five state-owned banks on November 6, 2021, the detectives have so far arrested 11 people. Photos of the question papers with answers went viral on social media even before the exam ended. Initially, Bangladesh Bank ignored the question leak complaints and did not make any immediate enquiry. Later, it cancelled the examination as several media outlets carried reports suggesting the question had been leaked.