NEW DELHI, 12 April 2004 — Countrywide tests for entrance to graduate medical courses which were to be held yesterday were canceled after question papers were leaked. Two medical students were arrested.
Students and parents blamed the Central Board of Secondary Education, which conducts the examination, for lax security
CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly said the examination has been canceled after the leakage was reported and new dates will be announced today.
On a tip-off, police raided a house in Ashok Nagar district in east Delhi on Saturday night. Rakesh Verma and Vikas Verma, medical students of Nagpur, were caught selling the question papers, deputy commissioner of police Dependra Pathak told reporters.
At least 13 students who were to sit for the test yesterday and were there to buy the question papers, were also detained. The students from Nagpur were offering the question papers for between 500,000 and 700,000 rupees, Pathak said.
The arrested duo are being interrogated about their associates and police are trying to find out from where they got the papers, Pathak added.
More raids and arrests are likely.
Nearly 250,000 students had applied this year to appear for the tests at 424 centers in 31 cities across India.
The examination is the portal to 1,800 seats in prestigious medical colleges across the country.
The confiscated question paper being distributed by the duo matched with the one that was to be distributed yesterday at the examination centers, police confirmed.
Police believe the kingpin of the scam is still at large. Preliminary investigation indicates that the leaking of the premedical papers had been going on for the past four or five years.
Having identified probable sources of the leak, the CBSE said a committee would go into the problem and adequate steps would be taken to prevent a recurrence.
But hundreds of students across the country who had flocked to examination centers — many traveling hundreds of kilometers from distant towns to the cities — were angry about the cancellation.
While children who had come to the cities hoped a new date would be set within this week, others were hoping that the new date would not clash with those for other entrance examinations. This is the fourth time in India in six months that papers have been leaked for different examinations.
— Additional input from Indo-Asian News Service
