Over 1.74 lakh students, who wrote the II Pre-University (PU) chemistry examination (new syllabus) across the State on Monday, received a jolt in the evening when the examination was cancelled by the Department of PU Education (DPUE) after the question paper was found to have been leaked.

The date for the re-examination is yet to be decided.

The exam was held at 975 centres across Karnataka. While department officials refused to divulge details of the source of the leak, a press statement from the DPUE said the Chief Superintendents and Joint Superintendents of exam centres at SASM PU College for Women, Ballari, and Government PU College, Malur in Kolar district, have been suspended with immediate effect.

In 2012 too, the II PU exam was derailed owing to leakage of question papers. It was a student, who was to write the same exam in less than two hours, who blew the lid off the leakage on Monday.

DPUE Director Pallavi Akurathi told The Hindu that the PU helpline here first received a call around 7.30 a.m. from a II PU science student in Bengaluru. Seeking anonymity, the whistle-blower told the PU Department official about hand-written question papers being circulated to them over the popular messaging app ‘WhatsApp’ before the exam.

“He said one of his classmates had sent it to him. He then forwarded the images to us. As many as 36 out of 37 questions in the paper matched,” Ms. Akurathi said.

The DPUE then submitted a report to the State government based on preliminary investigations, after which the government ordered the cancellation of the exam and directed the department to conduct a re-exam. The Primary and Secondary Education Department is expected to set up a committee to conduct an internal probe into the incident.