Raipur, 22 August (H.S.): The question paper for the Entomology examination of the second semester of the second year of the B.Sc. Agriculture programme at Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV) in Chhattisgarh was leaked shortly before the examination on Friday. Acting swiftly, the state police arrested six people in connection with the case, including a professor at a private college in Durg.

Police officials said teams from the police and cyber unit conducted raids across Raipur, Durg, Kawardha, Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur. Based on substantial technical evidence and WhatsApp chats, the police arrested all six accused on Saturday morning. During questioning, it emerged that the question paper was leaked from Durg and subsequently reached students in Kawardha before being circulated among other students through WhatsApp groups. Police also questioned several students allegedly linked to the network, while two students from Kawardha were served notices and summoned to Raipur for questioning.

Police have officially confirmed that the Entomology question paper was first leaked from a private agricultural college in Durg. Raids were conducted across four to five districts, including Raipur, Durg, Kawardha, Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur, during which more than 16 suspects were detained and questioned. Following the investigation, police identified the key links in the network and made six major arrests.

According to the investigation, around two hours before the examination, at approximately 8 a.m., students received a text file containing 18 important questions through a WhatsApp group. It was not a scanned copy of the question paper. When the original question paper was opened at examination centres at 9:30 a.m. and the examination began at 10 a.m., more than 70 per cent of the questions in the circulated text file were found to match the actual question paper verbatim.

The primary suspect arrested in the case is a professor employed at a private college in Durg, who has been accused of being the first person to leak the question paper. The other five arrested individuals include college students allegedly linked to the network who further circulated the questions through WhatsApp.

As per the original schedule, the examination was to be conducted on August 20. The question papers had already been securely delivered to the examination centres, but just two hours before the examination, the entire paper began circulating widely through WhatsApp.

As soon as the university administration learned about the leak, it immediately took the decision to cancel the examination. The dean of a college in Kawardha and a college in Bilaspur had formally informed the university about the leak through email, following which an FIR was registered at Telibandha police station.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar