For the first time in the 42-year history of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), its Common Admission Test (CAT) for the MBA program was canceled Sunday following leakage of the question paper.

An estimated 130,000 students across India were registered for Sunday's examination and the chairmen of admission committees of all six IIMs are expected to meet in the next couple of days to fix a new date for conducting CAT afresh.

The paper leakage came to light after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested four persons from a hotel in Mahipalpur area of southwest Delhi, the capital of India, while they were allegedly giving out questions along with answers of CATto four candidates.

The CBI said the papers seized from the four arrested persons matched with the original as all 150 questions were found to be the same.

In Pune, southwest India, raids were launched Saturday night after The Times of India newspaper tipped off a police officer. A crack team undertook a series of raids leading to the arrest of six people, who had lured students into paying more than 3,000 US dollars for a set of question papers in advance.

Shortly after that, Indian Union Human Resource Development Minister M. M. Joshi contacted authorities at the IIM and the coordinating body for the all India exams.

"Once we got the information that the paper had indeed leaked, Iordered that the examination be canceled. There should not be a feeling among the students that the tests are unfair," Joshi told reporters.

Besides the CBI investigation, Joshi has decided to constitute a separate inquiry into the paper leakage.

"The leakage is being inquired into and those found guilty willbe brought to book," said Joshi.

Bakul Dholakia, the director of IIM in Ahmedabad, west India, suspected that question papers could have been leaked from the printing press.

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