Nagpur: When a Board question paper reaches a student inside the examination hall, it culminates a long, winding journey intended to retain its secrecy. Yes, incidents of alleged paper leaks are not rare, with the latest case stemming from Nagpur during the HSC physics and chemistry papers. At what point in its secured journey, a paper gets leaked is a matter of police probe, but past incidents show the crime is committed after the paper reaches the exam centre.The question paper is always packed in sets in a sealed envelope, usually in sets of 25 each. It stays secured under 24×7 vigil at the board office before leaving for an undisclosed custody centre, the night before the exam. On an average, 1 custody centre stores question papers for 4 to 5 examination centres, but this number can vary. Here too, it remains secured in a trunk and under constant security. On exam day, the papers are dispatched to centres (schools or junior colleges) and reach in about 30 to 40 minutes before the start of the exam.So, if the exam starts at 11am, the trunk with the question paper is escorted to the centre by 10:30am, headed by a person generally referred to as a “runner”, who hands over the trunk/sealed parcel to the exam centre head. All checks at handover are done to ensure it was not tampered with in any way. The exam centre head takes over from here and calls invigilators to collect the papers for exams. This is roughly around 10:40am, when each invigilator is given sealed envelopes one by one. So, if there are 40 students in a particular room, 2 envelopes of 25 each are given. Here too, the invigilator verifies they received a sealed packet.The invigilator then enters the examination hall and calls any 2 students to the front. These students bear witness that the question paper is indeed in a sealed packet and sign the documents to confirm. After this, the invigilator opens the envelope and distributes the question paper. This entire process takes the clock to around 10:50am or a few minutes after. Over decades, the board honed the system so that it works like clockwork.Now the question arises — at which point did the paper get leaked? A former board official said, “The timing of the leak is key. This narrows down the window of when the leak happened. If the paper was leaked a day before, then we know where the paper was on its journey. I am sure the police will probe into these aspects and crack the case.” For now, board officials started strict implementation of checking the envelopes by ensuring there is no sign of tampering.
