Ranchi/Jamshedpur, May 27: Chaos reigned in the ongoing BA/B.Sc/B.Com II and III examinations today.

While examinees of the B.Sc Part III Zoology honours paper were given wrong question papers, 17 candidates were expelled for using unfair means in the examination. According to university sources, one each at St Xavier’s College and Doranda College, Ranchi, two students each at Jamshedpur Workers’ College and the Graduate School College, Jamshedpur, four each at Chandil College and B.S. College, Lohardaga and three students of Gossner College, Ranchi, were punished for alleged cheating.

They were caught using unfair means when pro-vice-chancellor Anand Bhushan and other university officials paid surprise visits to these colleges.

A girl was expelled and handed over to the police after she was caught red-handed with supplimentary answersheets on which some of the answers were written. According to college authorities, she was a student of B.Com (honours) part III from Jamshedpur Women’s College and was answering her paper at Graduate School College for Women. Principal of Grdauate College Shukla Mohanty said the girl was handed over to the police on suspicion that she had been given the supplimentary sheet by an organised racket. An FIR has been lodged at the Sakchi police station.

Besides, the B.Sc candidates of the new syllabus were given question papers of the old syllabus. Ranchi University authorities admitted the mistake on part of the examination department and the centre superintendents of the college.

A student of St Xavier’s College, appearing for examination from the Ranchi Women’s College, said they were given wrong question papers at 9 am, when it began. “We immediately brought it to the invigilator’s notice, but it took him nearly two hours to get us the right question papers,” she said.

University sources said separate sets of question papers was not prepared for the old and the new course in most of the subjects, including Physics and Botany. As a result, ex-students appearing for the examination were not able to answer most of the questions. Vice-chancellor S.S. Kushwaha admitted flaws on the part of the university, but blamed the colleges saying they did not provide the university with the exact number of students and their categories.

But complaints were galore.

“We were not given enough time in proportion to the lost hours as we received the new question paper at 10.45 am and the invigilator took the answerscript at 12.30 pm, half-an-hour beyond the stipulated time of 12 noon,” said another student from St Xavier’s/