The Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) on Sunday formed a four-member team to probe into the allegations of question paper leak in an examination conducted by it on Saturday.
The Principal of the CET (College of Engineering and Technology) would head the team and submit its report to the university, sources said.
The first year BTech students appearing for the back paper on Saturday had alleged that the Communicative English paper was leaked.
Twenty minutes ahead of the examination, some portions of the question paper were doing the round on social media. Resentment was at its peak after the examinees came to know about the paper leak. But the university authorities went ahead with the schedule and the examination was not cancelled.
As per the students, the examination was of three-hour duration for 70 marks. The examination was scheduled to begin at 10 am. However, questions were being circulated on social media messaging platform WhatsApp 20 minutes before the examination.
BPUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Shyam Sunder Patnaik said, “I came to know about the allegations through media. This was for the first time that we had sent the question papers online. The papers were sent 40 minutes prior to the examination. They were password-protected and every centre had its unique credentials. If the allegations are true then someone from the examination centre is involved in it.”
Meanwhile, the alleged breach in the online examination system has raised questions over its transparency.
“We would initiate action against the wrongdoer after receipt of the inquiry report,” Patnaik added.
If need be, complaint would be lodged with the Cyber Crime cell of the Commissionerate Police to trace the IP (internet protocol) address of the device, from where the paper was circulated, informed sources said.
Notably, the BPUT has introduced the online system for the first time on the lines of the JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). The BPUT conducted the examination for BTech and MTech students from December 2. However, it suffered an alleged goofup after the question paper leak case in which eight long-answer questions carrying five marks each printed on the backside of the question paper were leaked through WhatsApp.