Hyderabad: An audacious attempt to ‘leak' the medical paper of EAMCET was thwarted by officials on Sunday. This also led to the arrest a few persons involved in the racket apart from some aspirants.

Candidates involved in the episode were picked up from KSRM Engineering College centre in Kadapa and GPR Engineering College in Kurnool when they tried to enter their allotted examination centres with microphones stitched to their shirt collars.

Medicos involved?

“About 150 persons have been picked up so far by the police and it was found that some medical college students were involved,” a senior official said. Initial enquiries revealed that the ‘beneficiaries' were willing to pay up to Rs. 5 lakh if their attempt proved to be successful.

The Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE) Chairman, K.C. Reddy, EAMCET-2010 Chairman D.N. Reddy and Convener N.V. Ramana Rao assured students there was no leak of the paper and they need not worry on that count.

At a press conference, they said few complaints were received on Saturday evening about a possible paper leak and the police were alerted immediately. The police did an excellent job of tracking the people behind the racket and also the students overnight. And when these students turned up for the medical stream of the exam, they were picked up and four microphones confiscated.

Prof. Reddy said there were rumours that eight questions in botany and 21 questions of zoology got leaked but when the same was compared with the original paper it turned out to be false. “The plan to leak the paper failed at the first step itself. Intelligence IG M. Mahender Reddy personally supervised the operations and gave clearance to go ahead with the exam after confirming the leak did not happen,” he said.

Prof. D.N. Reddy said no official concerned with EAMCET was involved in the episode. Otherwise, the exam was held smoothly across the State barring a few complaints of students being denied entry for being late.