We have got the teacher who dictated Komal and Harsh’s chemistry paper...

...and Bhagwat Singh, who now takes tuitions, had a lot to say in a conversation with Mirror that was secretly taped
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Sunday, March 15, 2009 (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article&sectname=News%20-%20Latest&sectid=2&contentid=20090315200903150305343296b800427)

FAKE FRACTURES SCAM: A YEAR LATER

On March 14 last year, our education was shamed by 2 rich students who faked fractures to secure services of writers. Helping them was a senior Board official who brought 3 teachers to help the writers. The teachers were declared untraceable and their statements were never recorded. But Mirror has done what the cops and corrupt Board officials could not
Nobody involved in the fake fractures, impostor writers scam wants to hear the name Bhagwat Singh. Not the guilty, not the accused, not even investigators.

But Bhagwat Singh is the only man through which heavyweights involved in the scam that currently roam scot-free can be brought to book.Here’s why. Exactly a year ago, on March 15, the scam was exposed, in which Harsh Kotak and Komal Patel, children of city’s two prominent builders, faked injuries and got bright students to write their class XII chemistry paper.

Thanks to their powerful connections, Harsh and Komal had the entire education board at their beck and call. And leading the way was none other than the Board’s secretary, H N Chavda. It was Chavda who had smuggled in three teachers to dictate answers to Harsh and Komal’s writers.

While nobody knows the whereabouts of the two teachers involved, the third man was Bhagwat Singh, Komal’s private tutor, who was also declared untraceable.In fact, the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) had in its report of May 8, 2008 said FIRs should be filed against Bhagwat Singh and his two accomplices.A few days ago, Ahmedabad Mirror traced Bhagwat Singh’s residence to Nava Vadaj, and spoke to him a number of times on his mobile phone.

Through the course of our conversation with him, all of which is recorded (see story of Telephonic Conversation), Bhagwat Singh said, “I am the one who is ruined by this episode even as the big people have escaped unscathed. My father suffered a heart attack after the scam was exposed and my wife has been unwell ever since.”
Komal’s father Sanjay Patel (Left) Swastik school principal Raja Pathak (Right)Denying that he took a bribe to help Harsh and Komal, he said, “I have not been paid a penny in the whole thing, nor did I demand any money from anyone. I am known in the teaching community for my helpful nature and my sole intention was to help them.”

Bhagwat Singh said he had lost his teaching job in a Memnagar school and now keeps the kitchen fire burning through private tuition.Reiterating that he was a “victim” in the entire scam, the tainted teacher said, “I went to A G High School (where Harsh and Komal were appearing for their exams) with Board secretary Chavda. Before entering the school premises, I signed the entry book in my own name, which proves my intentions were not wrong.”When asked to identify the other two teachers involved, Bhagwat Singh said, “I don’t know them.

The entire thing was handled by others.The students have been handed a three-year ban from appearing in exams but they will take admission somewhere else. I am the only one who will suffer in this case.”When asked why he doesn’t approach the education board on his own, he said, “I don’t know anybody in the Board. And Chavda is a smart man. Some very influential people are involved in this incident and if at all anybody will be ruined, it’s going to be me. The big fish won’t be caught.”