Probe begins into BPUT question paper leak

Ayaskant Das Published On : Dec 27, 2015 at 2:09 PM Updated On : Dec 27, 2015 at 8:18 PM

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Dec 27:

Odisha’s premier technical university–Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT)—today formed a four-member team to probe into the allegations of question paper leak in an examination conducted by it yesterday.

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The principal of CET (College of Engineering and Technology) would head the probe team and submit its report to the university, sources said.

The first year B Tech students appearing the back paper yesterday had alleged that the Communicative English paper was leaked.

Twenty minutes ahead of the examination, some portion of the question paper was doing the round on social media. Resentment was at its peak after examinees came to know about the paper leak.

However, the authorities of the varsities went ahead with the schedule and the examination was not cancelled.

As per the students, the examination was of three-hour duration for 70 marks. The examination was scheduled to begin at 10 am. However, questions were being circulated on social media messaging platform WhatsApp 20 minutes before the examination.

“I came to know about the allegations through media. This is for the first time we had sent the question papers online. The papers were sent 40 minutes prior to the examination. They were password protected and every centre had its unique credentials. If the allegations are true then someone from the examination centre is involved in it,” Prof Shyam Sunder Patnaik, BPUT vice-chancellor said.

Meanwhile, the alleged breach in the online examination system has raised questions over its transparency.

“We would initiate action against the wrong-doer after receipt of the inquiry report,” Patnaik added.

If need be, complaint will be lodged with the Cyber Crime cell of the Commissionerate Police to trace the IP (internet protocol) address of the device from where the paper was circulated, informed sources said.

Notably, BPUT has introduced the online system for the first time on the lines of JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). The varsity conducted the examination for B Tech and M Tech students from December 2. However, it suffered an alleged goofup after the question paper leak case in which eight long answer questions carrying five marks each printed on the back side of the question paper were leaked through WhatsApp.