Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya seeks probe into alleged BSc Agriculture question paper leak

The Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV) in Chhattisgarh has sought a police investigation into alleged leak of another BSc Agriculture question paper, officials said on Wednesday. The state-run, Raipur-based university has written to the Station House Officer of Telibandha police station, seeking a probe into the alleged leak of the question paper for APB-5121 (Fundamentals of Genetics) exam, which was held across 28 agricultural colleges on August 19.

According to the complaint, the matter came to light after a report was published in a national Hindi daily on Wednesday. A journalist of the newspaper also shared a PDF containing questions and answers of the subject through WhatsApp with the university's Information and Public Relations Officer, it said. The university has constituted a five-member committee to examine the matter. During its preliminary inquiry, the committee inspected envelopes containing question papers that had been sent to an agricultural college and subsequently returned to the university.

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The inspection prima facie revealed signs of tampering in the envelopes, including the one containing the Fundamentals of Genetics question paper, similar to those allegedly found in an earlier paper leak case investigated by police, the university said. Copies of the newspaper report, the PDF containing the alleged leaked questions and answers, the original question paper and the inquiry committee's report have been submitted to the police.

The Telibandha police said a complaint has been received and the matter was being investigated. The development comes amid a series of alleged question paper leaks involving IGKV examinations. On August 22, a professor and five students of a private college in Chhattisgarh's Durg district were arrested in connection with the alleged leak of an IGKV question paper.

The question paper of entomology, a second-year BSc Agriculture subject, was cancelled after the alleged leak came to light on the morning of the examination on August 20. On August 24, IGKV cancelled the BSc Agriculture first-year Plant Pathology examination held on August 7 after a police investigation into a separate case confirmed that its question paper had been leaked.