State health department’s recruitment exam paper leaked: Cyber cops begin probe after plaint

Rahul Kawthekar, an aspirant from Pune, has made a written complaint with what he claims is proof about the paper being leaked out before the exam

PUNE The Pune cyber police department has now begun an inquiry into allegations that a question paper of the state health department’s recruitment examination, held on Sunday, October 31, was leaked.

Exam answer sheet or application paper blurry view on table in examination room with blur education background of school university students taking exam test writing answer in seat row with stress (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Rahul Kawthekar, an aspirant from Pune, has made a written complaint with what he claims is proof about the paper being leaked out before the exam.

The state health department’s recruitment examinations were held on October 24 and 31 for Group C and D posts. At least 800,000 students had registered for the exam.

“We have all the evidence about the paper being leaked for the examination on Sunday. Early in the morning some of aspirants got the paper with answers on their social media. When we came to know about it, we immediately raised the issue with the state health department officials and Pune police. Yesterday our written complaint in this regard has been taken by the Pune cyber police and we hope to get justice,” said Kawthekar.

The state government has outsourced the conducting of the exams to Nyasa Communication Private Limited (NCPL). Earlier, the same recruitment examination was scheduled for September 25-26. As NCPL could not make the necessary arrangements and students faced several technical issues, the exam was canceled.

Then, on Sunday, October 24, several examination centres faced mismanagement like not the question papers nor reaching in time, wrong allocation of papers, no proper seating arrangements and no mobile-phone jammers at the centres.

Dr Satish Pawar, directorate of Health Services and former state health director-general, said, “We have submitted all the necessary documents regarding the recruitment examination held on October 31 to the cyber police department. There are two important points to consider; whether the paper really was leaked or not? And if yes, how many students were involved? Was the number small or on a large scale. Everything will be clear once the police do the investigation and after that we will take a decision.”

“One of the aspirants reported the paper leaking in the October 31 state health department recruitment examination and accordingly he has submitted a complaint application to Pune cyber police. Now we are doing further inquiry into this case,” said D S Hake, senior police inspector, Pune cyber police station.