MYSORE: After the Mysore city police raided the houses of those responsible for leaking the engineering examination question papers and found copies of four more question papers, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has announced that all question papers for the coming examinations have been replaced by a new set.

Fears allayed

Allaying the fears of students, VTU Registrar Shivakumar told The Hindu that the university has printed a new set of question papers at a different printing press. "There will be no change in the timetable of the examinations," he said.

The VTU's assertion came after Mysore City Police Commissioner Pravin Sood told presspersons on Tuesday that the police had found the culprits to be in possession of four more question papers, including copies of the manuscripts. "We recovered photostat copies of the original manuscripts submitted by the university authorities to the press," Mr. Sood said.

An internal investigation carried out by the VTU traced the leak of the question paper for the January 16 examination to the printing press in Mysore that has printed the university's question papers for the past few years.

After receiving information from the VTU, the police arrested four youths who joined the private printing press barely 20 days ago. The four — Ravi, Ramesh, Raghu and Srikantha — were working as caddies at the golf club on the outskirts of Mysore till recently. Ravi, Ramesh and Raghu, residents of Ittigegud here, had engaged Srikantha, a resident of Nazarbad, to "sell" the question papers. Mr. Sood said the accused had been caught red-handed, referring to the recovery of question papers and copies of the original manuscripts from their houses.

Mr. Sood said the police found serious security lapses at the printing press when they raided the premises on Monday. Question papers and manuscripts were found lying about in the press.

`Above board'

VTU officials question papers were being printed at the same press for the past six to seven years. "There is no reason to suspect the integrity of the press owner," Prof. Shivakumar said.

Such a lapse has not taken place before though the VTU prints more than 800 sets of question papers for its various courses, he said.

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