Patna, Bihar: Patna’s District Magistrate, Chandrashekhar Singh, was filmed slapping a Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) aspirant during a protest outside the BAPU Exam Centre on Friday. The virial video emerged from the agitation the aspirants held against alleged irregularities in the preliminary competitive examination conducted to recruit candidates for Group A and B posts in the Bihar government offices.

Approximately five lakh candidates appeared for the exam across 945 centres in Bihar. However, protesters claimed the integrity of the exam had been compromised, alleging a leaked question paper and widespread mismanagement at certain centres.

Several students at the BAPU Exam Centre accused authorities of delays in distributing question papers and OMR sheets. Protesters stated that in some cases, question booklets were distributed an hour late, while others received them for only ten minutes before they were confiscated. There were also claims of insufficient question papers, torn seals on booklets, and even an answer sheet discovered in a toilet.

“Half of the students did not even get the OMR sheet or the question booklet for 15 minutes…. Many got the question booklet one hour late and it was snatched away in 10 minutes… Where the capacity of students is more than 200, why only 175 question papers were brought?… We discovered that the question paper has been leaked… Teachers were threatening us to stay quiet… There is not one BPSC exam which has not been rigged… The seal of the question booklet packet was torn…  An aspirant’s answered sheet was found in the toilet…,” news agency shared a video of an aspirant complaining.

The protests turned chaotic, prompting police intervention. A video from the scene showed DM Singh slapping an aspirant and dispersing the demonstrators.