Purported images of English question papers of class 10 board exams in West Bengal were circulated on social media after the commencement of the examinations on Saturday, a day after Bengali papers similarly went viral.
West Bengal Board of Secondary Examinations president Ramanuj Ganguly said 12 candidates have been punished in connection with the incident after the English question papers shared on social media were scrutinised and authenticity was confirmed.
They have been barred from sitting for the rest of the examinations and their Bengali paper of the previous day has also been cancelled.
Two other candidates have been similarly punished after they clicked photographs of Bengali question papers and circulated those on social media on Friday.
Ganguly said of the 12 candidates who faced action during the day, 11 were from Enayetpur High School and Gayeswari Piyaribhusan Bidyaniketan in Malda district and one from Amguri Rammohan High School in Jalpaiguri district.
However, he claimed that as the images surfaced after the commencement of the examination, it cannot be called a leak.
“They were found to be involved in clicking photos of the English question paper with mobile phones inside examination centres and circulating those on WhatsApp… we want to deal with the issue firmly but without jeopardising their career. So, we won’t be pressing any charges against them,” Ganguly added.
“Children are being used by some people to malign the state government and disrupt the examination process. We urge those behind this to desist from such self-destructive acts,” he added.
Education Minister Bratya Basu also claimed that there seemed to be a “sinister effort from some quarters to disrupt” the ongoing examination process and discredit the state government.
“However, such an effort will not succeed and those plotting conspiracies to malign the state will be exposed before the candidates and their parents for playing with their future,” he added.
Ganguly said the board has also cancelled the English papers of three other candidates in Katwa, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda districts for bringing mobile phones to examination centres, Ganguly said.
An estimated 9,23,045 candidates wrote their papers at 2,675 centres across the state during the day.
The board scrutinised the authenticity of the shared images by checking the unique secret code embossed on every page. It introduced the system after fake images of question papers were shared on social media in the past.