Helping him navigate a leak of such magnitude was his senior, also a teacher in Sikar, who pored over the ‘guess paper’ with him, and convinced him this was the best course of action to ensure due process.
Narrating the events to The Indian Express, the senior teacher, who did not wish to be identified, said, “He told me about the ‘guess paper’ around the same time he found out, about 6 pm on the day of the exam. We had to study it since it was a 150-page PDF. At the same time, students were calling us with their queries and to discuss the exam, which had just gotten over at 5 pm, so it took us some time to study the paper.”
“We found that a total of 135 questions – 90 of biology and 45 of chemistry – which cover all the questions for the subjects, had appeared in the actual paper. We then approached some journalists in Sikar, who tried to understand things and told us that they could publish something if there was a complaint. All this took a lot of time, and hence it was past midnight by the time he reached the police station,” he said.
The senior said that the next day, they wondered if any action would indeed be taken, “as there have been leaks in the past too and no action has been taken on them”.
“We were trying to figure out how to communicate it to the people. We looked at the 2015 leak case (of All India Pre-Medical Test), at how it was exposed, and whether we should approach the whistleblower (for help). We looked at the data, the Supreme Court case and its decision; we also searched for the contact numbers of advocates so that we can speak to them for advice,” the senior said.
He said that they eventually decided to send an email, found the relevant email IDs, and sent the complaint to the NTA, the MHA and the CBI on May 7.
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“Had we first brought it in the public domain directly, the administration may have been after us,” he said, adding that they had to ensure that they had the right approach, through the right people, so that the matter isn’t hushed up or they themselves become a target.
“Putting it in the public domain may have also led people to think that our students didn’t do well, and hence we may be wishing to get the paper cancelled… There were several factors,” he said.
“We were also trying to understand things – how it may have been leaked, whether it has been leaked from Sikar or from outside. We also wanted to prevent Sikar from being defamed; Sikar had, in fact, caught the theft and exposed it,” he said. All of this took them three to four days, before they decided to send an email.
The senior said that the response was “immediate.” “We had complained on the night of 7th, and on 8th, a team from the Centre had reached (Sikar). Then the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police also arrived and took action. We shared what had to be shared with them,” he said, thanking “the government and the NTA for immediately taking a decision.”
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“We didn’t do it for the limelight, I could have created a video with evidence of photos, mail, etc, but I don’t have to grow subscribers or get views on social media,” he said, adding that they had to do this as it was simply “the right thing” to do, even though several of their students were going to score very well, and they knew that these student were going to be disappointed.
“You realise that many candidates may have had access to the question paper. We were also apprehensive about the paper being solved in an online class, which, we figured, would severely affect the entire result,” he said, adding that the estimate being given is that the ‘guess paper’ reached well over 10,000 students.
He dismissed claims of the teacher being apprehensive, “His landlord received the paper on the night of May 2. When the teacher got the paper at 6 pm, he immediately shared it with me. I also became tense then.”
He said, “The landlord’s son did not purchase the paper. The paper reached a medical college student in Kerala from Gurgaon. Apparently, this student had purchased the paper and shared it with a friend, the landlord’s son, out of a sense of brotherhood on the night of May 2.”
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“The landlord’s son then shared it with his father in Sikar around 11 pm on May 2, telling him that it is being said that examination questions will come from this ‘guess paper’ which has been prepared by some institute. However, the landlord’s father didn’t share it with anyone – except the teacher – nor did he purchase it,” he said.
“Once the teacher reached the rented home with the question paper around 6 pm, the landlord also came and started cross-checking the questions in the exam paper with the ‘guess paper’, and they realised that the paper had leaked. Then he immediately shared it with me on WhatsApp,” the senior said, adding, “We didn’t want to feel guilty later on.”