An Army recruitment exam here was on Sunday cancelled after its question paper was allegedly leaked and nine people were arrested.

The examination for All India Sena Bharti (GD soldier grade, written paper) scheduled to begin at 10 am at Army Public School here was cancelled, its convener Ajay Kapil said.

Rajasthan Special Operation Group and ATS in Bikaner, in a joint operation, arrested nine persons, including four ex-Army men, who were involved in the racket, a senior police official said.

Over 700 examinees were to appear in the exam before the “paper leak” racket was busted in the wee hours of today in a bus which was moving on the city road with 40 students whom they sold the papers from Rs 2 to Rs 2.5 lakh, the SP-Bikaner Santosh Chalke said.

The racket included four ex-Army men; Pramod Kumar, Tejveer Singh, Abhilakh Singh and Pushpendra Singh, the SP said.

Five other accused were identified as Vikas Kumar, Tarulal, Surendra Sharma, Mahesh Chandra, and Arjun Singh, he said.

Ex-subedar Tejveer Singh was indulged in the paper leak and sell for the last 22 years, preliminary interrogation by the joint team revealed, the SP said.

Three cars and three original papers were recovered besides a cash of Rs 72,000 from them, the SP said.

Army Spokesman Colonel S D Goswami said the Army would also probe this case and cooperate with the SOG and ATS, and guilty, if found, would be punished.