Pune, November 9, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Pune Police have registered a case against a National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) employee for allegedly leaking a recruitment examination question paper on WhatsApp a day before the test, nearly 18 months after the examination was conducted.
The Chaturshringi Police booked Vivek Baban Hadwale, 40, under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and Sections 316(2) and 316(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), following a complaint by a vigilance officer of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
The written examination for the post of Work Assistant was held on May 24, 2025, at the NCRA centre on the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus.
According to the complaint filed by TIFR vigilance officer Vaibhav Pandurang Sherkar, 35, information about the alleged leak reached the institute’s vigilance department through a confidential source in June 2026.
During a meeting on July 31, 2026, the source claimed that he had received the complete question paper on WhatsApp from Hadwale’s mobile phone at around 7.15 am on May 23, 2025, a day before the examination.
The source reportedly handed over a printed copy of the paper and screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation. Sherkar also photographed the messages displayed on the source’s mobile phone. The source subsequently reiterated that Hadwale had sent him the paper.
The TIFR vigilance department compared the document with the original examination paper and found that the two were identical, following which Sherkar approached the police.
The police have launched an investigation to establish how the question paper was accessed and circulated, and whether any other persons were involved in the alleged leak.
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