Bhubaneswar, Jul 29 (IANS): The Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) has issued show cause notices to 55 candidates, who were allegedly involved in the JE (civil) main exam question paper leak case.

“In pursuance of a report from SP, Balasore, OSSC has yesterday (July 28) issued show cause notice to 55 candidates as to why they shall not be barred lifetime from recruitment of OSSC,” the Commission said in a press statement on Saturday.

Efforts are on to link remaining 37 candidates with their application in coordination with Balasore police, it said.

The OSSC has sought some more information from the Balasore police to link the other candidates with their application so that action can be initiated against them.

The Commission has committed to taking exemplary action against all candidates who are involved in unfair practices, including question leak.

The OSSC had conducted the main written examination for recruitment of 1008

JE (civil) Group-B posts in different offices of the government of Odisha on July 16, 2023.

However, during an investigation into a fake job racket case, the Balasore district police came to know that the JE (civil) recruitment main examination question paper was leaked prior to the test. Following this, the OSSC has cancelled the main written test conducted for the post and decided to conduct a fresh exam on September 3, 2023.

So far, the police arrested 17 persons, including the mastermind Vishal Kumar Chaurasia and a printing press staff, who leaked the question paper, in this case.

Balasore SP Sagarika Nath had earlier informed the accused had made a deal with some candidates to provide them the question paper on July 15 night or July 16 morning.

After the exams were over, if the questions matched, the candidates were asked to pay half the amount instantly and the other half after the results were declared. With this deal, some candidates have got the leaked question paper.