LRD recruitment: Paper leaked an hour before exam

It is being termed as the most embarrassing instance in Gujarat’s police recruitment history.

An hour before 8.75 lakh students were to take an recruitment exam for 9,713 Lok Rakshak Dal and jail sepoys posts—constabulary staff on fixed pay — a handwritten answer key to the question paper leaked on social media and reached the mobile phone screens of many, including the chairman of the recruitment board for LRD, additional DGP Vikas Sahay, who cancelled and postponed the exam for a month. An FIR has been lodged in the paper leak case with the sector 7 police in Gandhinagar.

Fuming aspirants took to the streets and protested against the leak. Protests broke out in Rajkot, Botad, Amreli, Junagadh, and Gir-Gadhada of Saurashtra. It was only after the police rushed to the spots that roads were cleared of protesters.

State police chief Shivanand Jha immediately ordered an inquiry into the leak giving a clear warning that anyone involved in the leak will not be spared. Sahay apologized to lakhs of aspirants who had spent time and money to take the exams.

At a press conference Sahay said, “I regret that despite ample precautions — including deployment of force and CCTV surveillance, I came to know that a hand-written answer key to the question paper set by me had leaked. The incident has severely dented the image of the Gujarat police recruitment board and now doubts are being cast on the secrecy maintained around the process.

Police have detained several persons connected with LRD exams and a few outsiders who had received the images of the leaked answer key sheets on their social messaging platform. "We will crack the case soon as we have gathered CCTV footage which has helped us identify some key suspects , " said police.