The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) has decided to cancel the March 5 exam to recruit Assistant Engineers after the question paper was leaked. Fresh dates for the conduct of the exam will be announced later, the TSPSC said in a notice issued on Wednesday, March 15. Nine people, including two TSPSC employees and a police constable, were arrested on March 13 after the incident came to light.
The paper leak caused uproar as student wings of various political outfits including Akhila Bharata Vidya Parishad (BJP students wing), PDSU (Progressive Democratic Students Union), Aam Aadmi Party and others protested outside the TSPSC office in Hyderabad on Tuesday. The protestors demanded that the exam be cancelled and also called for the resignation of TSPSC Chairman B Janardhan Reddy from the post.
The TSPSC had conducted the examination on March 5 for 833 vacancies of Assistant Engineer, Municipal Assistant Engineer, Technical Officer, and Junior Technical Officer in various engineering departments. A total of 55,000 candidates had written the exam. The Commission had lodged a complaint with the Begum Bazar police when its officials found that someone hacked the computer system in which the question papers were stored. Investigations revealed that two TSPSC staffers — P Praveen Kumar and Rajashekar Reddy — were responsible for stealing the question paper. The two officials were later suspended.
Among those detained is a former teacher and her husband who made a deal with Praveen for Rs 10 lakh in order to support her brother Rajeshwar Naik, who was taking the exam. Rajeshwar Naik, in exchange for Rs 13.50 lakh, gave the question papers to two additional candidates who were allegedly recommended by a police constable.