Pune: NCRA employee booked for leaking work assistant recruitment exam paper

Police in Pune have registered a case against an employee of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), alleging that the person leaked the question paper of the recruitment examination for the post of work assistant. The matter came to light on November 10, 2026.

The accused has been identified as Vivek Baban Hadawale. Chaturshringi police have booked the accused under the Official Secrets Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

According to police, the complaint was lodged by Vaibhav Pandurang Sherkar (35), an officer in the vigilance department of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai.

The written examination for the work assistant post was held on May 24, 2025, at the NCRA centre on the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus. The vigilance department became aware of the leak of the question paper in June 2026, and an inquiry began. During the inquiry, the complainant met a person on July 31 who gave information about the incident.

According to the complaint, the person claims to have received the question paper on WhatsApp from Hadawale's mobile number at about 7:15 am on May 23, 2025, a day before the examination.

The person also handed over to the vigilance department a printed copy of the question paper, screenshots of the WhatsApp chat and photographs of the question paper displayed on a mobile phone screen.

During the inquiry, officials compared the material received from the person with the original question paper held by the institute. The two question papers are reported to have matched.

Following this, a complaint was filed against Hadawale on the alleged charge of exposing confidential examination material. Chaturshringi police have registered the case under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act and Sections 316(2) and 316(5) of the BNS.

Further investigation into the alleged question paper leak is continuing.