Anxious students and guardians called up WBUT officials who described the reports, aired on local news channels, as misleading. After receiving the concerned question papers from the media at 12.08 pm, the WBUT authorities maintained that there was no leak. The examination thus began as scheduled. Out of 43 subjects, the question papers of mathematics and analog communication (a paper of electronics) of the second semester had reportedly been leaked. According to reports, handwritten question papers of these subjects were selling in Nadia and Birbhum districts.

“We asked the local channels airing the news to come up with evidence. We got two faxes from them at 12.08 pm. But after checking the papers they had faxed, we found they did not match the papers prepared by the university,” said Shantanu Basu, controller of examinations, WBUT. He added that a few questions in the mathematics paper were the same as the handwritten paper sent to the university’s examination section.

The controller said that earlier there were reports of a leak of the biophysics question paper but on inquiry it turned out to be false.

He, however, assured that a probe would be initiated to ensure that the other semester examinations are held without any hiccups. About 70,000 students from 127 colleges in the state are appearing for their second, fourth and sixth semester examinations. The examinations began on June 2 and will continue till June 21.