A dejected AIEEE aspirant outside an exam centre in Patna. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, May 2: Candidates who appeared for All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) yesterday had a tough time at the examination centre because of a purported paper leak.

After word spread about the question paper leak, the examination was postponed at different centres, triggering chaos and confusion among the students. Fresh sets of question papers were provided to the students.

The first paper to be held for students aspiring for bachelor of engineering (BE) at 9.30am was rescheduled to 12 noon, whereas the second paper for students aspiring for bachelor of architecture (BArch) was scheduled at 1pm but was rescheduled to 4pm.

Sources said that the AIEEE examination papers were leaked in Kanpur and were sold for Rs 6 lakh.

M.V.V. Prasada Rao, the joint secretary-cum-regional officer of CBSE, Bihar-Jharkhand, said: “Two centres — DPS Patna and Army School Danapur Cantonment — could not conduct the examination since some other examination had to be held at the same time (at the rescheduled time of AIEEE). More than 1,600 students could not appear at these two centres. Examination would be held for these candidates very soon.” Rao added: “Papers were not leaked in Bihar. However it’s heard that papers were bought here.”

Shadab, an AIEEE aspirant, said: “I had already taken the seat in the examination hall along with other students, but it just before 9.30am, we were told to vacate the hall as there was no certainty that the examination would be held. For half-an-hour, we were left in a dilemma. Then we were informed that it the examination would take place at 12 noon and examinees had to take seats by 11.30am. We had to sit out in the sun, as my house was too far from the Centre. Almost all suffered my predicament.” Shadab added: “I was well prepared for the exam but I was too tired and hungry by the time it started. I even forgot whatever I had covered during last-minute studies.”

An angry candidate, Rahul, said: “It’s such an important examination and we prepare for it for months. Because of some people, our precious time was wasted and we got extremely tired. How could one write the paper well on a hungry stomach? All our hard work goes vain.”

Sources said a few candidates fainted at the examination centres, especially those who had opted for both the papers since they were out since early morning.

Ravi Shankar Kumar had come from Bhagalpur and had to return by a 4pm train. Since the examination ended at 3pm, he missed his train by the time he reached Patna Junction. Kumar said: “By the time I reached Patna Junction, the train had left. We had to wait till 10.15pm to catch another train. Trains were late. We reached around 4.45am. If the examination had been held at the scheduled time, I would have reached home by 10pm. We were compelled to go hungry. We couldn’t find anything to eat and had to keep standing and waiting for the exam to start.”

Sohaib Karim had opted for both the papers. Karim said: “I had left home around 7am and returned after 8pm. Between the two papers, I had got half-an-hour’s time. Though we wanted to eat, we just could not since we had no time for that.”