Four candidates, who allegedly bought the question papers for the test for Life Insurance Corporation`s office cadre post from one Pawan Kumar, a 33-year-old Geography graduate from Delhi University, are also facing arrest, police said.
Terming the incident as unfortunate, Anju Banerjee, Chairman and Managing Director of Educational Consultants India Limited (EDCIL), which is conducting the exams for LIC, told PTI they will decide on whether to cancel the tests after police investigations are over.
The incident came to light after Delhi Police`s crime branch got hold of the copies of two sets of question papers for both morning and afternoon sessions last evening and arrested Kumar from Naraina where a raid was conducted.
The test is being conducted in two sessions in 160 centres across the country and 1.65 lakh candidates are appearing for the test. In Delhi, there are 16 centres.
"The question papers have been leaked. We got the copies of the question papers and when we tallied these copies with the original question paper, they were found to be the same," Ashok Chand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), told reporters here.
Chand said they went to three centres in Delhi and one in Chandigarh to crosscheck whether the question papers were genuine. The candidates who allegedly benefitted by the leakage have been identified as Inderjit, Rahul Kumar, Praveen and Dharamvir.
"Pawan had appeared for Civil Services examination earlier but failed. He is in the trade since 2005. He was earlier arrested for impersonation in Delhi Pre-Medical Entrance Test in 2005," he said.
Three suspected candidates were to appear for the test in Delhi while one was to appear in Chandigarh. "We recovered the question papers and found that they tallied with the original ones. The candidates are being interrogated. They are likely to be arrested soon," Chand said.
The candidates in Delhi were to appear for the test in three Kendriya Vidyalayas in Andrews Ganj, R K Puram and Jankapuri, he said.
Investigators are now trying to locate a man who gave the papers to Kumar for selling. "He is one of the modules of the gang," Chand said.
An LIC spokesperson said the entire examination process is being conducted by EDCIL, a public sector company, under the Human Resources Development Ministry.
"This contract has been given to EDCIL through an open tendering process. We have sought a detailed report from EDCIL," the spokesperson said.
Banerjee said she had asked EDCIL`s vigilance wing to seize all papers soon after the exams are over this evening and seal it.
"We are waiting for the police investigations to be over. Right now we are not cancelling the examinations. The culprits, even if they are from EDCIL, will be caught," she said.
Asked whether EDCIL employees could be behind the leakage, a senior police official did not rule it out and said all angles are being investigated.