Five hours before it was held, the Staff Selection Commission’s Central Police Organization exam paper was found on Facebook. The exam was held as if nothing had gone wrong.
By Siraj Khan
In a shocking incident, the question paper of the All India Staff Selection Commision Central Police Organization (CPO) examination was leaked on Facebook five hours before it took place on March 20. The same questions were found in the exam held in the second shift. The exam was conducted by Staff Selection Commission (SSC), a government organization that recruits staff for various ministries and subordinate offices.
The matter came to light when Neetu Singh, founder of KD Campus, that coaches students for competitive exams, posted a page of the question paper on her Facebook wall five hours before the examination. When India Legal contacted her, she claimed that she had got the paper from one of her students. “Pages of the question paper were distributed among students for free. One of my students also got a page and sent it to me. After that, I uploaded it on Facebook, but within 10 minutes, I changed the privacy to only me as someone commented that it was of CHSL (Combined Higher Secondary Level Exam). But after the exam, students told me that the questions were exactly the same as the actual question paper,” she said.
Shocked candidates have now demanded cancellation of the exam. “I’ve been preparing for this examination for the past two years. I appeared for it last year too but couldn’t make the cut. This time, my paper went well but I was shocked to see the same questions in the page uploaded on Facebook. The exam must be cancelled and a re-exam held,” lamented Rubi Toor.
Various students reacted to Singh’s post. Rahul Rajput wrote: “Ishliyee I have give up competition line and now focus on my own Business (sic).”
Another candidate said on condition of anonymity: “This has not happened for the first time and I always wonder if the paper I am going to take has already been leaked out or not.”
When contacted, the Northern Region office of Staff Selection Commission denied all the reports and claimed that the exam had been conducted successfully. “We have not received any such report from any of the examination centers. If you have any proof, do send it to us and we will act on this,” said Rajesh Kumar, an assistant in the office of the PRO, Northern Region of the Staff Selection Commission. Another official who insisted on not being quoted said that no complaint about the leak of the paper had been received.
SSC papers have leaked out in the past too. In 2013, a question paper of the SSC Combined Graduate Level Examination was leaked and had to be conducted again.