When the Delhi Police unearthed a leakage in the CBSE All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) question papers last week, one man was ecstatic: Ranjit Singh a.k.a Ranjit Don, accused of leaking the cat examination paper for the Indian Institute of Managements. "There have been 10 paper leaks during my stay in jail. Papers of six exams were leaked while I was in CBI custody, taking lie-detector tests. It proves that I am not responsible," says Singh, who was arrested by the CBI in November last year.

JOB SWITCH: Exam scamster Ranjit Singh (garlanded) will contest the polls

Few believe him but Singh does have a point. The AIPMT leak was the fourth time in six months that a competitive entrance examination paper was leaked, causing a disruption in the plans of thousands of students-2.4 lakh students were to take the test across 31 cities and 424 centres in the country for over 1,700 seats, which account for 15 per cent of all medical college seats. The response of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development was predictable. Apart from quickly declaring that the question paper would now be e-mailed to the examination centres-a proposal that had been pending for long-it ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter.

The Delhi Police, meanwhile, launched a hunt for three persons involved in the racket-the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has already arrested two, Rakesh Verma and Vikas Verma. According to official sources, the culprits belong to a gang that has been tapping into the medical examination question papers for the past four years. They were charging Rs 7 lakh from each candidate.

The police are now looking into a possible connection with Singh. The whole episode has put a question mark on the CBSE's hitherto sound record of conducting tests. As the largest school examination body which also conducts the All India Engineering Entrance Examination, it has now been put on the mat. Its Chairman Ashok Ganguly says some "black sheep" in printing, storage and transportation of the papers may have been involved in the scandal.

SCAMSTERS INC: Racketeers Rakesh Verma (right) and Vikas Verma arrested

But the man who ostensibly perfected the art of leaking, Singh, was busy filing nomination papers from the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. Singh, who was in judicial custody in the prison ward of the Patna Medical College Hospital, had earlier taken the court's permission to file his nomination papers from Nalanda but later switched to Begusarai.

The larger question is of how deep-rooted the malaise has become. During the investigation of the cat paper leak case last year, investigating agencies found 50 to 70 suspects who run rackets similar to Singh's. Yet the V.K. Shunglu Committee which was set up to investigate the cat leak has still not presented its report.

The controversy raises the issue of parental complicity in the process. The racket works like this: gang members conduct exhaustive interviews of students before handing over the question paper. Weak candidates are usually denied the papers in order to avoid arousing suspicions. The students also get money-back guarantees for less than "99 per cent" accuracy. But the point is these students would not be able to afford the cost of a leaked paper without parental approval. Somewhere the pressure to excel is taking its toll.

Delhi Police DCP Dependra Pathak says some educational institutions too are involved in the scam. Take the racket that rocked Mumbai University last month and shattered the hopes of 60,000 final BCom students. It was busted by the Mumbai Police when they arrested an uncle-nephew duo-one a professor and the other a BCom student. According to Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy, a detailed investigation began after Mithibai College Principal Madhav Welling lodged a complaint on March 17. The leak was traced to a lecturer from Nagrik Shikshan Sansthan (NSS) College in Tardeo, Prakash Nagaria, and his nephew, Achal Gupta, a third year BCom student. Nagaria walked into a police trap when he was caught with Rs 25,000 as an advance payment. Says Roy: "It is a case of sheer greed and it could be part of a larger nexus."

Though only principals are authorised to conduct examinations, NSS College Principal S.M. Sayyed allowed Nagaria to accept the sealed question papers. Nagaria allegedly broke the seal of one of the papers and faxed it to Gupta who sold copies of them for Rs 3,000-5,000. The Mumbai Police are now looking into larger rackets and bigger players who are responsible for a series of paper leaks since October 2000.

But this may only be the edge of the precipice for higher education institutions. Leaks are springing up everywhere, says R. Raiyani of the Forum for Fairness in Education. In Mumbai University alone, which has added departments and allowed affiliations at a rapid pace in recent years, 650 examinations are conducted annually. Yet the vital post of controller of examinations has been lying vacant for the past four years. With such apathy creeping into the education system, it is not surprising that exam paper leaks have become the order of the day. But at what cost is the big question.

-with Manoj Verma