Over 10 lakh students took the Review Officer/Assistant Review Officer exams in Uttar Pradesh on February 11. However, these exams were canceled due to a paper leak. This incident adds to the controversy already surrounding the NEET exam paper leak.
Initially, authorities, including Ghazipur District Magistrate Aryaka Akhauri, denied the leak. Akhauri blamed an invigilator for opening a bundle of exam papers early. But four months later, investigations revealed a well-planned leak that began at a printing press in Bhopal, 950 km away.
Investigations showed the leak happened at Bishop Johnson Girl’s High School and College in Prayagraj and was traced back to the printing press. A Special Task Force found four engineers – Rajiv Nayan Mishra, Sunil Raghuvanshi, Vishal Dubey, and Subhash Prakash – were behind the leak.
The second leak at the school happened just hours before the exam. Arpit Vineet Yashwant, overseeing the exam, took photos of the question paper at 6:30 am on the exam day. Arpit and four others have been arrested.
The first leak happened at the Bhopal printing press where the exam papers were printed. Rajiv Nayan Mishra, the mastermind, worked with printing press employee Sunil Raghuvanshi, Vishal Dubey, and Subhash Prakash. All four engineers used their skills to pull off the leak.
Rajiv Nayan Mishra found out about Sunil’s job at the printing press through Vishal Dubey, who was Sunil’s college classmate. They bribed Sunil to leak the paper for ₹10 lakh. Sunil agreed, on the condition that the candidates read the paper in his presence to keep it from going viral.
On February 3, while fixing machines at the press, Sunil saw the question paper and took it home. The group decided to show the paper to candidates at Hotel Komal on February 8, three days before the exam, for ₹12 lakh each.
At the hotel, Sunil brought six copies of the question papers. Subhash Prakash and a helper solved the papers, and the students memorized the answers. Accomplices Vivek Upadhyay and Amarjeet Sharma brought the candidates to the hotel. The police later found identical question papers on Subhash’s phone to those that had gone viral online.
Rajiv Nayan Mishra, wanting more money, shared images of the question paper with Ravi Attri, who had masterminded a previous UP Police constable paper leak. This caused the paper to go viral online. Six people have been arrested so far, and investigations are ongoing.
Rajiv Mishra and Ravi Attri had previously organized a similar leak for the UP Police Constable exam, which involved 47 lakh candidates competing for 60,000 jobs. This exam was also canceled after leak allegations. Both masterminds are now in Meerut Jail.
The careful planning and execution by these engineers reveal significant flaws in the exam system. Authorities are continuing investigations to ensure all involved are caught and such breaches are prevented in the future.