HP govt cancels exam after four arrested for paper leak
75,803 candidates had appeared in the exam held at 81 centres across 11 districts to recruit 1,700 constables on March 27
SHIMLA/DHARAMSHALA: The Himachal Pradesh government on Friday cancelled the police constable recruitment exam after the Kangra police arrested three candidates and an employee of a private institute in connection with the alleged paper leak.
As many as 75,803 candidates had appeared in the hour-long exam held at 81 centres across 11 districts to recruit 1,700 constables on March 27, the result of which was declared on April 5. Among the candidates, 60,454 were male and 14,563 females. Apart from them, 696 male candidates appeared for the post of driver.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said from initial investigation it appeared that the question paper was leaked, hence the government decided to cancel the exam. A special investigation team (SIT), led by deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Madhusudan and comprising superintendents of police Vimukt Ranjan, Khushal Chand Sharma, Rohit Malpani and Virender Kalia, will probe the case.
Thakur said that the exam had been cancelled to ensure transparency and it would be reconducted by this monthend. Strict action will be taken against the culprits involved in the paper leak whether from within the state or from outside, he added.
Sharma said the four accused were arrested late on Thursday. The three candidates are Manish Kumar from Sulyali village of Nurpur sub division, Mani Chaudhary of Khatiyar village in Fatehpur sub division and Gaurav from Bhariyada village in Kangra tehsil. The fourth accused Ashok Kumar, a resident of Passu village near Dharamshala, works at a private institute and had facilitated the meeting of candidates with the person who leaked the paper. The SP said the police had got several complaints of candidates adopting unfair means to score in the exam and antecedents of the candidates were being checked during document verification.
₹6 lakh to ₹8 lakh for solved paper
“The three candidates had scored 70 out of 80 marks, while their score in Class 10 was below 50%,” said Sharma. He said they were also not able to answer simple general knowledge questions during the document verification.
When interrogated firmly, they admitted that they had seen the paper before the exam.
The three had paid between ₹6 lakh and ₹8 lakh to some people for providing them the solved paper.
The Kangra police have registered a case under Section 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Gaggal police station as the exam centre where the candidates in question appeared falls under its jurisdiction.
The people involved in the leak are from Delhi and Haryana and police teams have been sent to arrest them.
Leak suspected at printing press
To avoid suspicion, the accused neither provided the hard copy to the candidates nor did they share it on any messaging app. The candidates were shown a copy of the solved paper at Gaggal, Panchkula and Chandigarh and told to memorise the answers. “The paper was possibly leaked from the printing press,” said Sharma.
Earlier, Arki police in Solan arrested five candidates, the alleged beneficiaries of the constable recruitment examination; on April 18 after a WhatsApp chat was widely shared in which the paper leak was alleged.
At that time, Himachal Pradesh DGP Sanjay Kundu had ruled out the leak and decided to go ahead with the document verification process.
During the police recruitment exam in 2019 also, the Kangra police had busted a racket involving youngsters from outside the state appearing as proxy for the candidates.
Thirty people, including candidates and impersonators, were arrested in that case. The case is pending in court.