In the span of a month, the University of Mumbai has faced two allegations of paper leaks, with the latest being on Wednesday. While University officials vociferously denied it, students said they were given question papers that were taken back soon after and given new ones around 30 minutes later.
Students of the third year Bachelor of Management Studies said they received questions through mobile messages on the eve of the exams. Fearing it would get them in trouble, most deleted the message. However, those who retained it confirmed that around 60 per cent of the questions were similar to what was in the first paper they got.
“The question paper code too was mentioned in the message. Some students even claimed they had received a picture of the question paper. We just thought it was a prank to get the exam postponed,” said a student.
Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray too said he had received the message. “I have constantly been getting updates of students’ problems,” he said, adding that this incident should be enough to make the government take punitive action.
Dr Naresh Chandra, pro-vice chancellor, MU, said the decision to change the paper was a precautionary measure as they too had received the SMS. “We got it at 10.30 am and had enough time to verify that the questions were similar to what was in the paper. We then decided to change the question paper,” he said.
The MU has registered a police complaint and a three-member fact finding committee has been formed to look into the matter.