Guwahati: The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) has constituted a four-member committee to probe allegations that three question papers of the class XII board examinations were "surprisingly similar" to the test question papers of a junior college in Goalpara district.

The council is an autonomous body that conducts the class XII exams.

Council secretary Kamal Jyoti Gogoi said on Friday the committee will be headed by retired district sessions judge B.C. Das. The other three members are Cotton University faculty - Santanu Baishya from physics department, Manjit Kumar Bhattacharyya from chemistry and Rajiv Bhattachajya from mathematics department.

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) on Friday claimed the question papers of chemistry, mathematics and physics of the Class XII exam were surprisingly similar to the test papers of Science Academy in Goalpara district. The AASU made the allegation after the chemistry exam on February 27 and mathematics exam on March 5. After the physics exam on Friday, it reiterated its claim.

Based on the allegations, a council team visited Goalpara and conducted a preliminary inquiry and found that "some" questions were similar. "The test paper sets of Science Academy had 170 questions each while our question papers had 34 to 35 questions. We have constituted a committee to probe the allegations," an official said.

The AASU claimed that all questions in chemistry and physics and 96 per cent questions in mathematics in the class XII exams were similar to the test papers of Science Academy. The AASU demanded that the probe be completed within 48 hours.