Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reacted strongly to the alleged paper leak in the ongoing UP Board examinations and on his directions, the district inspector of schools (DIOS) at Ballia was placed under suspension while the probe into the entire matter was handed over to the Special Task Force (STF).

The chief minister also directed officials to invoke National Security Act (NSA) against all those responsible for the paper leak.

The English paper for the Intermediate class scheduled in the UP Board exams 2022 was cancelled in 24 districts because of paper leak in the second shift in the Ballia district on Wednesday.

Sources said that the STF team, which was already on alert, responded quickly to the SOS and took eight suspects into custody in Ballia and were grilling them in the paper leak case.

Speaking to reporters in Lucknow soon after the paper leak came to fore, Secondary Education Minister Gulabo Devi said that strict action would be taken against the culprits.

Devi said that the chief minister was keeping an eye on the whole matter. She claimed that fixing the prima facie accountability of the DIOS of Ballia, Brijesh Kumar Mishra, the government had placed him under suspension.

She further said that to take stern action against those involved in the paper leak, the government had handed over the investigation to the UP STF.

She said that the officials of all the 24 districts where the UP Board paper was cancelled were under the purview of the probe.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi has sought a detailed report on the entire matter from the district magistrate and superintendent of police of Ballia.

It may be mentioned that the papers were kept in high level security and all the arrangements were made by the government and the Education department to ensure no leakage but still the gang managed to leak the English paper.

The Uttar Pradesh Board exams for Classes 10 and 12 began on March 24 under strict arrangements, with close to three lakh cameras installed at centres to curb cheating. The feedback from 8,373 centres is being monitored at district-level control rooms.

The state government had earlier warned that the stringent National Security Act (NSA) would be slapped against those found using unfair means during the exams. All exam centres were being monitored closely with help of staff and a total of 2,97,124 CCTV cameras, officials had earlier said.

On the first day of the exams, senior officials had inspected several exam centres and reviewed the arrangements.

He said that the exam was conducted as scheduled in the rest of the districts.

Announcing the cancellation, the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) said, "Due to a paper leak, the Intermediate English paper scheduled for Wednesday, March 30 at 2pm in 24 districts only has been cancelled."

Earlier, Additional Chief Secretary (Secondary Education) Aradhana Shukla said that the paper of Class 12 English subject series 316 ED and 316 EI was leaked and hence the examination of those 24 districts had been canceled where the papers of this series were sent. She said the date of the canceled exam would be announced later.

Sources said that the canceled English paper of Class 12 would be held on April 13.

The exams were canceled in Ballia, Etah, Baghpat, Budaun, Sitapur, Kanpur Dehat, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Gonda, Azamgarh, Agra, Varanasi, Mainpuri, Mathura, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Shamli, Shahjahanpur, Unnao, Jalaun, Mahoba, Ambedkar Nagar and Gorakhpur districts.