The Hindu : CAT paper leaked, examination cancelled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 24, 2003

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CAT paper leaked, examination cancelled

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI NOV. 23. For the first time in the 42-year-old history of the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), its Common Admission Test (CAT) for the MBA programme was cancelled today after the Central Bureau of Investigation nabbed four touts leaking the question paper here a few hours ahead of the examination in 26 cities across the country.

Though the CBI nabbed the foursome — "all MBBS doctors from Bihar'' — in the wee hours of this morning, a decision on the fate of the examination was taken much later as the seized question papers had to be tallied with what was distributed to the candidates. This could be done only after the sealed bundle of question papers was opened at the designated hour at various examination centres. Since the process of tallying took a while, officials decided against disrupting the examination midway, and the cancellation was announced late in the afternoon.

The paper leakage came to light after the CBI — acting on a tip-off that a gang was leaking papers of various all-India level competitive examinations — conducted a surprise raid on a hotel near Mahipalpur on the Delhi-Gurgaon road. Four candidates were found in the company of four touts with a copy each of the question paper and answer sheet for today's CAT examination.

Investigations revealed that the touts charged Rs. 2.4 lakhs from each student for showing them the paper. Their modus operandi was to approach candidates ahead of the examination with the promise of showing them the paper in advance. The candidates who bit the bait were asked to gather at a guest house/hotel on the eve of the examination. They would be shown the paper and to ensure that the candidates did not pass on the information, the students were allowed to leave the premises only in the morning when there was just enough time for them to reach their respective examination centres. And, to ensure against dummy candidates, the touts entertained only students with valid admission cards.

The four touts — said to be led by Ranjit Singh who was among those arrested today — are suspected to be part of an organised gang having a nationwide network with stakes running into several crores of rupees. Following their arrest, raids were conducted in five places in Patna at the residences and nursing homes of the four medicos.

An estimated 1.3 lakh students were registered for today'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. No mean job this because they will have to zero in on a holiday on which no other examination of such a scale is scheduled. Also, there is the issue of availability of examination centres as most educational institutions are booked well in advance for the various tests that make up the annual examination cycle.

Besides the CBI investigation, the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, has decided to constitute a separate inquiry into paper leakage. It was only last week that the Ministry had indicated a likelihood of asking IIMs to restructure the CAT process by doing away with group discussions and interviews to make it more transparent.

Exam in January-end?

Manas Dasgupta reports

from Ahmedabad:

The Ahmedabad director, Bakul Dholakia, today justified the cancellation of the entrance examination following reported leakage of the question papers. He said if the leakages were not detected and examination not cancelled, some people would have secured undue advantage and scored more than genuine candidates.

Dr. Dholakia suspected that question papers could have been leaked from the printing press. The examinations were likely to be rescheduled towards January end, he said.

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