A Seremban primary school teacher was sentenced to a 25-year jail term for possession of several images of leaked Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) exam papers in his mobile phone.
Judge Suresh Gopalan found the teacher, L Subbarau @ Kamalanathan, guilty on five counts under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972, which provides for a jail term of between one and seven years.
Suresh ruled that the prosecution had proven their case beyond reasonable doubt to convict Subbarau.
Subbarau’s lawyer, M Kulasegaran, said an appeal would be filed in the High Court within 14 days, adding that the sentence passed was “too harsh for a technical offence”.
The five-year jail term on each count is to run concurrently.
The judge allowed Subbarau a bail of RM3,000 pending the outcome of his appeal in the High Court, but ordered for his passport be held.
The charges against Subbarau involved images of leaked examination papers for five subjects: Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2, Bahasa Tamil (comprehension), Bahasa Tamil (writing) and Science.
He allegedly committed the offences between Sept 8 and 16, 2014, when the primary Year 6 examination was underway.
In 2015, Subbarau was acquitted by the Sessions Court, and the decision was upheld later by the High Court.
But on May 25 last year, the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority ruling, ordered Subbarau to enter defence on grounds that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against him.