Exam Leaked

The SSC Combined Graduate Level (CGL) 2017 cycle's Tier II exam, held 17–22 February 2018 for nearly 2 lakh candidates, was hit by screenshots of answer keys circulating on social media, prompting SSC to cancel the second shift on 17 February after malpractice was reported. Thousands of aspirants protested outside the SSC office in Delhi for weeks demanding a CBI probe, with then Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal publicly backing the demand.

Then Home Minister Rajnath Singh ordered a CBI inquiry, and SSC conducted a re-examination on 9 March 2018 for the affected shift. The Supreme Court, calling the process "tainted," stayed the results from August 2018. The stay was vacated only in mid-2019: SSC declared provisional Tier III results on 9 May 2019, held Document Verification and Skill Test from 15 June to 31 July 2019, and declared the final result on 15 November 2019 — a delay of roughly 21 months from the February 2018 leak to final selection.

The Multi Tasking Staff (Non-Technical) 2016 exam, held across 5 days culminating on 30 April 2017, was compromised after Neetu Singh (the same KD Campus coaching director involved in the 2016 SSC CPO leak) shared images of the afternoon shift question paper and answer keys.

SSC cancelled the entire 5-day OMR-based exam, not just the leaked shift, and conducted it afresh in Computer Based Test mode in September–October 2017. Delhi Police Crime Branch busted a WhatsApp-based racket linked to the leak.

The SSC Sub-Inspector/Assistant Sub-Inspector (CPO) exam, held on 20 March 2016, was leaked when Neetu Singh, founder of Delhi-based coaching institute KD Campus, posted a page of the question paper on Facebook just five hours before the exam began.

SSC cancelled the compromised written exam and conducted a re-examination on 5 June 2016.

On the night of 3–4 March 2025, the CBI busted a departmental examination paper-leak scam under East Central Railway at Mughal Sarai — a promotional exam for elevation to Chief Loco Pilot posts. A senior DEE (Operations) who was entrusted with setting the paper allegedly leaked it via a Loco Pilot and an office staffer; 17 departmental candidates were caught with copies of the leaked paper.

26 railway officials were arrested and Rs. 1.17 crore in cash was recovered across 8 locations. The Railway Board subsequently cancelled all pending departmental Group C selections nationwide as a precaution and tightened departmental exam protocols.

The General Departmental Competitive Examination (GDCE) held on 3 January 2021 across 28 centres in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara for over 8,600 candidates was compromised when question papers with answers were allegedly supplied in advance via WhatsApp and in person, in exchange for large payments, to candidates seeking promotion within Railways.

The CBI registered a case against Mumbai-based training firm Aptech Ltd in January 2024 — three years after the exam — naming 15 people including 10 Railway officials and a CRPF head constable, and conducted searches across Surat, Amreli, Navsari, Mumbai and Buxar.

The Railway Recruitment Board (Mumbai) exam for 1,936 Assistant Station Master and Assistant Loco Pilot posts, scheduled for 6 June 2010, was leaked in a conspiracy involving the RRB-Mumbai chairman, who allegedly sold access to the paper through agents for Rs. 3.5–4 lakh per candidate. The CBI booked the accused on 15 June 2010.

A CBI special court in Hyderabad finally sentenced former RRB-Mumbai chairman Satendra Mohan Sharma and nine others to five years' rigorous imprisonment in January 2024 — nearly 14 years after the leak — along with fines totalling Rs. 7.87 lakh across all 10 convicted.

The Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) 2nd Grade Teacher exam for over 9,700 vacancies was set to hold its General Knowledge paper on 24 December 2022, but the paper leaked and was already circulating on social media that morning; the first shift was cancelled. An RPSC member, Babulal Katara, allegedly received Rs. 60 lakh for leaking the paper.

44 people, including 37 students and 7 subject experts, were arrested in Udaipur, with the alleged mastermind identified as Suresh Vishnoi of Jodhpur. The General Knowledge paper was re-conducted separately from the rest of the exam.

The Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) 2021, held on 26 September 2021 for around 16 lakh candidates across 31,000+ teaching vacancies, saw its Level 2 paper leaked two days before the exam.

Rajasthan cancelled and re-conducted the Level 2 exam, sacked the Board of Secondary Education chairman, suspended its secretary, and arrested over 35 people. The state subsequently enacted the Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act, 2022, prescribing up to 10 years' imprisonment and a Rs. 10 crore fine for paper leaks.

The Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (UPTET) 2021, scheduled for 28 November 2021 with nearly 20 lakh candidates registered, was cancelled hours before the exam after the question paper went viral on WhatsApp groups in Mathura, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr.

The exam was re-conducted within a month with no re-application fee for candidates; the UP STF arrested 23 people across Lucknow, Prayagraj, Meerut and Kaushambi in connection with the leak.

The Indian Army's pan-India Common Entrance Examination (CEE) for Soldier (General Duty), scheduled for 28 February 2021, was cancelled an hour before it began after Military Intelligence (Pune) and Pune Police jointly recovered a leaked question paper matching the actual set from phones of apprehended suspects.

A racket allegedly selling the paper for Rs. 4–5 lakh per candidate was busted; 9 people were arrested, including a serving Lieutenant Colonel identified as the main culprit responsible for the question paper.

The UPPSC Review Officer / Assistant Review Officer (RO/ARO) exam, conducted on 11 February 2024, was cancelled by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission after paper leak allegations surfaced shortly after the test.

UPPSC announced the exam would be re-conducted within six months following a state government investigation into the leak.

The UP Police Constable recruitment exam, held on 17–18 February 2024 for over 48 lakh candidates (including around 16 lakh women), was cancelled by the Uttar Pradesh government after paper leak allegations, with an STF probe ordered into the incident.

A re-exam was conducted over five days (23, 24, 25, 30 and 31 August 2024). Document verification and physical tests followed through early 2025, with the selection process completed later that year.

The Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board (GPSSB) Junior Clerk exam, scheduled for 29 January 2023 for 9.5 lakh candidates competing for 1,181 posts across nearly 3,000 centres, was postponed hours before it began after police recovered a copy of the leaked question paper from a detained suspect.

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad arrested 19 people across Vadodara, Hyderabad and Kolkata; the government re-conducted the exam within 100 days.

The Bihar Police Constable recruitment exam held on 1 October 2023 was cancelled by the Central Selection Board of Constables (CSBC) after a prima facie probe found an organised gang had sabotaged the exam, tracing the leak to the Kolkata-based printing subcontractor responsible for the question papers.

Bihar's Economic Offences Unit registered 74 FIRs and arrested over 150 people across related paper-leak cases; the alleged mastermind, Rajkishor Kumar, was arrested in 2025.

The Himachal Pradesh Police Constable exam for 1,334 posts, held on 27 March 2022 for over 75,000 candidates, was cancelled after its question paper was found leaked. Investigators alleged two Bihar residents stole the paper and sold it for Rs. 3–5 lakh per candidate through middlemen across multiple states.

State police filed a chargesheet against 61 accused by July 2022; the CBI later took over the probe, searched 50 locations across 7 states, and ultimately filed two chargesheets against 88 people, including several government officials from Railways, the HP Education Department, and Chandigarh Police.

The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) Group-I Prelims, held on 16 October 2022 for around 2.86 lakh candidates, was cancelled in March 2023 after fallout from a separate Assistant Engineer exam paper leak led to the arrest of 9 people, including two TSPSC employees.

A re-exam was scheduled for 11 June 2023, but on 23 September 2023 the Telangana High Court cancelled that re-exam too, ruling that TSPSC had not followed proper procedure — compounding the delay across nearly a full year before the process could restart.

The Jammu & Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) Sub-Inspector exam, held on 27 March 2022, was compromised when candidates allegedly paid Rs. 20–30 lakh each for advance access to the question paper. The selected list of 1,200 candidates was cancelled by the J&K Administration in July 2022 following the allegations.

The CBI filed a chargesheet against 24 accused on 12 November 2022 — including a then-serving BSF Commandant, J&K Police and CRPF personnel, and teachers — while the Enforcement Directorate separately arrested a key absconding accused in the related money-laundering probe.

The Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board ("Vyapam") scandal, uncovered in 2013, revealed systematic rigging of at least 13 different entrance and recruitment exams — spanning medical college admissions, engineering, and government recruitment for police, transport, food inspector and teaching posts — running since the 1990s, using imposter candidates, bribed invigilators and forged answer sheets.

A CBI investigation and Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force probe led to a chargesheet against 490 people. It remains one of the largest examination fraud scandals in Indian history, with several deaths of witnesses and accused during the investigation drawing national attention.

NEET UG 2026, held on 3 May 2026 for over 2.27 million aspirants, was cancelled by the NTA on 12 May 2026 after a "guess paper" circulating via WhatsApp among coaching centres in Sikar, Rajasthan was found to overlap with nearly 120–140 of the actual questions. A CBI probe traced a multi-state network across Rajasthan and Maharashtra, including coaching professors and a school headmistress, allegedly selling access to leaked questions for Rs. 2–10 lakh per candidate.

A nationwide re-exam was conducted on 21 June 2026 using existing registrations (no fresh application or fee). Results were declared on 16 July 2026 with 1,10,000 candidates qualifying, though attendance fell to 87.72% as over 2.7 lakh candidates skipped the re-test.

NEET UG 2024, held on 5 May 2024 for over 23 lakh candidates, triggered a nationwide controversy after 1,563 candidates were awarded contested grace marks and a CBI probe confirmed a paper leak affecting roughly 155 candidates in Patna and Hazaribagh, Bihar.

The Supreme Court cancelled the grace marks and ordered a voluntary re-test for the 1,563 affected candidates on 23 June 2024, but declined to order a nationwide re-test, finding the leak was not systemic enough to affect all 23+ lakh candidates. A later expert-panel review of one Physics question led to revised results for around 4 lakh candidates.

The All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) 2015, held on 3 May for over 6 lakh candidates across 1,050 centres, was compromised by an electronic-device cheating racket: Haryana Police intercepted suspects in Rohtak wearing vests fitted with micro-SIMs and Bluetooth earpieces used to transmit answer keys, confirming at least 44 candidates had benefited.

The Supreme Court cancelled AIPMT 2015 on 15 June 2015 and directed CBSE to conduct a re-test within four weeks; CBSE held the re-examination on 25 July 2015. This is the predecessor exam to NEET UG.

The UGC NET exam conducted on 18 June 2024 for around 9 lakh candidates was cancelled a day later by the Ministry of Education, citing inputs from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre that the question paper had surfaced on the darknet and was being circulated on Telegram.

A CBI case was registered for criminal conspiracy and cheating, and the exam was later re-conducted. In 2025, the CBI filed a closure report stating it found no evidence of an actual leak, concluding the circulated "leaked paper" was a doctored screenshot.