The question paper of Uttar Pradesh Provincial Civil Services (PCS) preliminary examination was today leaked just before the start of the examination, prompting Opposition parties to demand CBI probe and dismissal of the UP Public Service Commission (UPPSC) chairman.
"The paper was leaked at about 9.15 AM on WhatsApp messenger before start of the examination. It has matched with the original paper of PCS preliminary. We have informed the chief minister and chief secretary in this regard," Director General of Police (DGP) A K Jain told reporters.
He said police has got initial leads in the case.
"STF teams are working on it and we will soon work out the paper leak," Jain said.
In Lucknow, the PCS prelim was held in 148 centres and over 70,000 candidates appeared in it.
Throughout the state 4.5 lakh candidates appeared in 917 centres.
The PCS preliminary examination was being held across the the state. The first shift was from 9.30 AM to 11.30 AM and second shift from 2.30 PM to 4.30 PM.
District Magistrate, Lucknow, Rajshekhar said the examination was held as per schedule in both the shifts.
"The paper in the second shift was held as per schedule just like the first shift. As far as paper leakage is concerned, STF is probing the matter," he said.
Taking serious note of the matter, BJP demanded CBI probe and dismissal of UPPSC Chairman Anil Yadav, holding him responsible.
"The paper leak incident should be probe by CBI and UPPSC Chairman Anil Yadav should be immediately dismissed. He was involved in anomalies in PCS last year too. The leakage of PCS paper is not a trivial incident as fate of thousand of students depended on it," BJP spokesman Manoj Mishra said.
He alleged that during SP regime, all recruitments were unfair and demanded that entire recruitment after April 2, 2013 should be probed after Anil Yadav became Chairman.
Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh too demanded a thorough probe into the paper leakage.
"Those involved in paper leak should be brought to book and the entire process of examinations should be made fool proof so that such incidents could be avoided in future," he said.
Meanwhile, protests broke out in Allahabad following reports of the question papers leak, with hundreds of youths gathering in front of the UP Public Service Commission here, setting fire to an effigy of the panel's Chairman and demanding his immediate removal.
The news of the paper leak spread like wildfire while the first shift of the Preliminary exams, held between 9.30 AM and 11.30 AM, were underway.
Many of the candidates who were writing their exams at centres in the city, rushed out of exam halls to have a look at their mobile phones to verify the reports that the question papers have been leaked online messaging service WhatsApp.
Some of them headed towards the UPPSC headquarters here where they raised slogans blaming the panel's Chairman Anil Yadav for the leak.
Similar protests were reported from the University campus area, though there were no reports of violence.
Significantly, Yadav has been in the eye of a storm since 2013 when a controversial reservation policy was introduced by the UPPSC, introducing caste-based reservations at the preliminary stage itself.
The policy was scrapped following violent agitations in the city and petitions in the Allahabad High Court even as the embarrassed Samajwadi Party government claimed that the UPPSC had acted without taking the government's approval.
