The question paper of an all-India examination for the post of Assistant Administrative Officer of LIC was today leaked in the city ahead of the test, following which police arrested a man who allegedly sold the papers for Rs 5 lakh each.

Four candidates, who allegedly bought the question papers for the test for Life Insurance Corporation's officer cadre post from one Pawan Kumar, a 33-year-old graduate from Delhi University, are also facing arrest, police said.

Terming the incident as unfortunate, Anju Banerjee, Chairman and Managing Director of Educational Consultants India Ltd (EDCIL), which is conducting the exams for LIC, told PTI they will decide on whether to cancel the tests after police investigations are over.

The incident came to light after Delhi Police's crime branch got hold of the copies of two sets of question papers for both morning and afternoon sessions last evening and arrested Kumar from Naraina where a raid was conducted.

The test is being conducted in two sessions in 160 centres across the country and 1.65 lakh candidates are appearing for the test. In Delhi, there are 16 centres.

“The question papers have been leaked. We got the copies of the question papers and when we tallied these copies with the original question paper, they were found to be the same,” Mr Ashok Chand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), told reporters here.

Mr Chand said they went to three centres in Delhi and one in Chandigarh to crosscheck whether the leaked papers were genuine. The candidates who allegedly benefitted from the leak have been identified as Inderjit, Rahul Kumar, Praveen and Dharamvir.

“Pawan had appeared for Civil Services examination earlier but failed. He is in the trade since 2005. He was earlier arrested for impersonation in Delhi Pre-Medical Entrance Test in 2005,” he said.

Three suspected candidates were to appear for the test in Delhi while one was to appear in Chandigarh.