Bengaluru: March 22, DHNS : Around 1.74 lakh II PU students who wrote the chemistry exam on Monday will have to take the exams again as the Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE) has ordered a re-exam due to question paper leak.

The date of the re-examination will be announced on Tuesday. The question paper leak was reported from ASM PU College for Women in Ballari city and Government PU College in Malur, Kolar district.

As an immediate step, the Chief Superintendents and the Joint Chief Superintendents of the two centres have been suspended. The department will be launching an investigation and a complaint has also been filed at the Malleshwaram Police station here.

Explaining on how the leak was discovered, Pallavi Akruathi, director, DPUE, said a student had raised the compliant and brought to her notice a handwritten question paper at around 7.30 am.

“Many rumors do the rounds during such a time and I could not cancel the paper based on one student’s complaint. Later, I had gone for inspection to a college and I kept the question paper in mind. I discovered that there were quite a few similarities between the handwritten question paper with the original question paper. Immediately, I verified and the matter was reported to the higher ups.”

Not surprised: student

Despite the leak, Rakesh, a student who appeared for the exam at SJR College, Rajajinagar, said that news was no surprise for him. “Many of my classmates already had a copy of the question paper before the exam. It turned out to be the exact replica of the question paper that was given at the exam hall. In fact even the serial numbers of both the question paper was the same,” he claimed.

Students claimed that the question paper was available as early as 6 am in areas like Banashankari and Koramangala, and was also being circulated on WhatsApp.

Rupa, student of Mahila Samaj College, Kolar, blamed the negligence of DPUE for the leak. “Officials are playing with the life of students. Those responsible should be punished,” said Shashidhar, a student from Sahyadri College, Kolar, adding that cancelling the exam was a good move as it would have otherwise been unjust to meritorious students.

In 2012, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics papers were leaked. The CID arrested 29 people, including lecturers and government officials. The leaked question papers were stolen from the sub-treasury in Kadur in Chikkamagaluru district.