Thiruvananthapuram, May 4: A Kerala IPS officer was today allegedly caught cheating during his LLM (Master of Laws) exam.

Inspector-general of police T.J. Jose, of Thrissur Range in central Kerala, has been asked to go on leave for the duration of the probe.

Jose, who is middle-aged and was elevated to IPS status in 2000, was taking the first-year LLM exam of the Mahatma Gandhi University at the St Paul's College in Kochi.

He had already appeared in two papers. Today's exam, on criminal law and constitutional law, began at 10am.

About an hour later, Jose's behaviour apparently aroused the invigilator's suspicions. A search allegedly revealed the officer had brought along torn pages from a law guide and was copying his answers from them.

On learning that the candidate was a senior police officer, the scared invigilator summoned the college vice-principal, who holds additional charge of principal and chief examiner.

Awed by Jose's rank, college authorities allegedly tried to hush up the matter at first, letting the officer leave with the torn pages.

Reports said that attempts were also made to mark Jose "absent", but by then the news had spread fast. As television channels aired the news repeatedly, the college reported the matter to the university.

Vice-chancellor Babu Sebastian has asked the deputy registrar to conduct a probe. Unconfirmed reports said the college's report backed the copying charges.

Jose told a private television channel the accusations were a conspiracy against him. He said he had finished the paper early and left the exam hall.

Jose's fourth paper is scheduled tomorrow but reports said the university had decided not to allow him to take the exam.

State home minister Ramesh Chennithala said the "incident" was "shameful" for the police and the state. "The officer has been told to go on leave. No special privilege will be granted to him if found guilty," he said.