Lucknow, May 5 (Inditop.com) Four people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad district for their alleged involvement in leaking the question paper of a B.Ed entrance exam that was cancelled just hours before it was to start Wednesday morning, officials said.

The Lucknow University (LU) was scheduled to conduct the B.Ed entrance test for around one lakh seats in different universities and colleges of the state. Around seven lakh students were to appear in the exam.

“We have arrested four people with several copies of the computerised question paper. Several people have also been detained,” Additional Superintendent of Police A.K. Jain told reporters in Farrukhabad, some 300-km from Lucknow.

According to the police, the four men, all residents of Farrukhabad, were arrested Tuesday night from a photostat shop, where they were caught photocopying the question paper.

“Acting on a tip-off, we raided the shop and arrested the four. Later, we faxed the question paper recovered from their possession to the varsity officials, who confirmed about the paper leakage,” Jain said.

“A fax machine, two photocopiers and a computer at the shop were seized. We are screening them,” he added.

Interestingly, Farrukhabad district did not have a centre for the exam.

Meanwhile, the university has said that the new date of the exam would be announced soon.

“The inconvenience caused by the question paper leakage is regretted… We will hold talks with the state’s higher education department and soon announce a new date,” university registrar G.P. Tripathi told reporters.

Candidates were in for a shock when they came to know about the cancellation of the exam after reaching their respective test centres.

“It’s shocking and frustrating. I came from Sonbhadra, over 400 km from here, to appear for the exam. But on reaching here, I came to know that it was cancelled,” Arvind Giri, a candidate, said.