If the 2026 NEET examination paper leak brought students out on the streets and resulted in the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, there were others in the past that did not intensify like the one between June 6 and July 20, this year.
Take the one in 2004 when it was an unexpected crowd in a dhaba that caught the attention of a cop on duty who then alerted his seniors. What unfolded was sheer drama which had the makings of a crime thriller. “At that time it was not NEET, but CPMT, or Combined Pre-Medical Test. It was an input that alerted us that a roadside dhaba was cooking food for 300-400 people. Across the dhaba was a building where there were some students who had gathered. The exam was scheduled the following day. My assistant commissioner came and wanted permission to raid the premises and I said we must,” said Dependra Pathak, former Special Commissioner, Delhi Police, adding that the culprits and students were rounded up—caught red handed to put it simply. “It was a question paper, three-four handwritten pages,” Pathak said in an interview to a national daily.
Later when they took the handwritten sheets to the Controller of Examinations and matched the contents with the original question paper, it was a perfect match—every word, every sentence and worse still every question. “I remember the Controller of Examination was so nervous that he just sat on the ground,” given that the leak had happened in his office and “right under his nose”.
The main accused was Ranjit Don who was a past master in this game. “He was a hardened criminal and not easy to handle or one who would easily confess. He was a tough nut to crack. For one, he was involved in such cases in the past and hence was used to being interrogated and standing up to those questioning him. We had no clue on the modus operandi and Ranjit don was unwilling to speak or give any leads,” Pathak said.
So, how was it done and what was the modus operandi? Pathak said it the way it was. “It was under the nose of the Controller of Examination, rather in his own chamber. How it works is that a stand-alone computer is used. The key question was whether he was operating the computer himself or taking the help of someone else,” Pathak said.
Back in those days, many senior officers particularly in the age group of the Controller of Examinations were not tech-savvy or computer literate and often took the help of the junior staff: “So also in this case. We smelt a rat during interrogation of his staff whose help the Controller had taken for formatting the question paper. We raided his house and recovered huge amounts of cash after which he broke down and spilled the beans,” Pathak said.
It turned out that even as the Controller of Examination was present throughout, when he stepped out to go to the washroom, the leak happened. And how? Pathak said: “That few moments gap turned everything upside down. The computer operator was smart. His staffer had kept a wire which he attached to the computer and then mailed the contents to his account. And this he did within a few seconds. He had been handpicked by the gang and offered a huge sum of money, part of which we recovered in the raid: somewhere around Rs 45 lakh, and mind you, this was initial and part payment”, Pathak said, adding that the commitment was several crores of rupees.
Interrogation and questioning were a different ball game altogether. Ranjit Don and students apart, careful handling was the key when it came to asking the Controller of Examinations how it all happened. Given that he was innocent, he could not handle facing the police and to quote Pathak “had a seizure”.
As against this, the mastermind, Ranjit Don was adept at deflecting the issue and gave Pathak’s team a tough time. “He took three-four days before he actually cracked,” Pathak said avoiding to answer whether his team actually used third degree to make the accused relent. “Professional police handling” is as much as he said, revealing more than he could conceal.
As for the price tag of the leaked paper, Pathak put the figure at anything between Rs 10 and 20 lakh paid by each student who chose to “buy” the paper.
But then exam paper leak is not the only case Pathak has handled during his tenure and policing career. He was also on the spot controlling crowds at Jantar Mantar when the women wrestlers were protesting in 2023.
Given that the Wrestling Federation Chief Brij Bhushan Sharan was acquitted recently by a Delhi court, the memories have resurfaced.
For record, women wrestlers had then demanded arrest and removal of Sharan over sexual harassment allegations. The women wrestlers led by Sakshi Malik had spearheaded months of protest at the same sight that saw the recent students protest demanding Pradhan’s head.
Rewinding the scene, Pathak said that by way of comparison the recent protest by students was at a much larger scale. However, he said that his team had then made it “very, very difficult” for people to gather by what he called a “three-pronged approach”. However, the challenge was when the women wrestlers threatened to march up to Parliament. Despite a large number of women constables deputed to prevent the march, the women wrestlers physically overpowered them. “Naturally they were wrestlers and they just threw the women constables here, there and everywhere. The women police force was outnumbering the wrestlers, but they were no match to the wrestlers physically. They would just lift and throw, so to speak. There was total chaos,” Pathak said.
It is then that the alarm bells rang and Pathak had the sixth sense to take the mike and ask the entire police force to “just catch them”. It was a no-holds-barred situation and the cops swooped on them—men and women both. “The wrestlers were 109 so my men just lifted them and put them in the vans and took them to the police station”. When asked pointedly whether the men in uniform actually lifted the women wrestlers Pathak answered in the affirmative.
Exam paper leaks and women wrestlers apart, Pathak has also handled cases in Delhi’s red-light area when a woman’s nose was actually chopped off by an enraged customer. Or the one when the Sikhs in a gurdwara had marched to the police station because a film star had named her puppies inappropriately. And how can he not mention the duping case wherein the accused had impersonated Bollywood’s Aishwarya Rai?
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator
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