Months of labour for the common admission test (CAT) to top management institutes, including the IIMs which prepare the very best for leading roles in shaping the country’s future, came to naught after the CBI announced that the question paper had been leaked and the examination, held across the country this morning, was cancelled. The CBI arrested four persons — all from Bihar, three of them doctors — from a hotel in Mahipalpur in South West Delhi and said they were part of an organised gang running a multi-crore racket. This gang, the CBI said, was also involved in leaking papers of the All India Medical Examinations, Central Board of Secondary Education pre-medical test and Bank Probationary Officers’ examination. In Pune, five persons were arrested by police for selling papers to students taking the CAT. In 26 cities across the country, nearly 1.3 lakh CAT candidates sat through the examination, unaware that the CBI was busy tallying the question paper they had seized from the gang with the one distributed at examination centres. Within an hour, the CBI realised that all 150 questions matched. On being informed by the CBI, Human Resource Development Ministry contacted authorities at IIM, Ahmedabad, the coordinating body for the all India test, and cancelled the examination. ‘‘Once we got the information that the paper was indeed leaked, I ordered the examination be cancelled. There should not be a feeling among students that the tests are unfair’’, HRD Minister M M Joshi told reporters. IIM, Ahmedabad director B Dholakia, who believes the leak probably took place at the Indian Banking Personnel Services Press in Mumbai where the papers were printed, said a meeting of chairmen of admission committees of all six IIMs would be convened and fresh dates for the examination would be announced in two to three days. In Patna, the CBI raided the Kankarbagh house of racket kingpin Sharawan Kumar Azad aka Ranjit Singh but found only a distant relative present there. From Hilsa in Nalanda district, Ranjit apparently has an MBBS degree and owns or manages the Redonce Pharma Company in Mumbai. His relative said Ranjit ‘‘comes to Patna irregularly’’ and shuttles between Mumbai, Delhi and Patna. Said to be politically ambitious, he even tried for a major party’s ticket during the last Lok Sabha elections. On Saturday evening, the CBI on a tip off from its Patna branch, conducted a check at Shanti Palace, a highway hotel at Mahipalpur in South West Delhi, and found four candidates with four touts. They had with them a copy of the CAT question paper and another paper with all answers to the questions. The CBI team could get access to the question paper only on Sunday morning when students had already begun taking the examiantion. According to the CBI, the touts demanded Rs 2 lakh to 4 lakh from each candidate for the question paper. The gang would first pinpoint potential customers and then approach the candidates a day before the date of the examination. The candidates would be told to come to a room in a hotel or a guest house where they would be handed the set of question papers and the corresponding answers. To make sure that the papers were not passed around, the touts would allow the candidates to leave only two hours before the examination.
