PMT paper leak: An analysis

By: HEMA D

The recent update in the HP-PMT paper leak scam is that parents of four of the suspected beneficiary candidates have admitted their complicity in the paper leak. However, the police say this has not helped their investigation much as the parents are selective in their revelations. And moreover what they have admitted was already confirmed by the High Court.

There is a lot of action going on in the case in Shimla. Every third day there is a new arrest in the case or the custody transfer (from Chandigarh police to Shimla police for interrogation) of the ones who were accused for leaking the PMT of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Faridkot Punjab.

Now the arrest of one technician and another employee of the High Security Press at Lucknow , where the papers were printed, are awaited. It is believed that till they are arrested, the police are not yet ruling out involvement of some official of the Himachal Pardesh University in the case. There could be more heads rolling in the following months.

Those 38 students, who cleared the exam in the first attempt, were unable to make it through the second time. “But does that really suggest much?” (a question asked by many). Let us take a look at the comparative performance charts (of first and the second PMT) of those top 38 candidates, suspected to be beneficiaries of the paper leak.

Himachal Pradesh Combined Pre-Medical Test-2006-07

Comparative analysis of 38 suspected beneficiaries of paper leak

Here is another analysis of the pattern of the result of second entrance of those top 30 candidates

• Not even a single student from amongst the top 65 rank holders of last time could figure in the first 65 ranks in the second PMT entrance results. And they remained under 246 rank.
• Only 4 students scored slightly more than 400 marks, top scorer amongst them secured only 434 marks (previous score 625). His rank is rank 246 this time
• Out of these 38 students, 21 students scored below 300 marks and these were the students capturing first 50 ranks last time
• There is one student whoearlier scored 623 marks on rank 28 in merit list, who this time scored only 36 marks.

Well if it still seems that their first performance was only a result of the paper leak, then the facts established by the police throw some more light on the whole incident. The inquiry committee headed by DIG (CID) O.C. Thakur and consisting of two more police officials, including SP Shimla Anand Pratap Singh and DSP Arvind Digvijay Negi, went into details of the case.

According to the committee’s report that was submitted to the court nearly 106 mobile calls made by the touts to the parents and the candidates were traced. There is also enough evidence (of roaming calls and network of the parents and candidate’s mobile phones) that two days before the exam the candidates were taken outside the state apparently for tutoring the paper to them.

The suspects in the case who acted as touts and tutors, range from senior doctors (some in Punjaab, Uttar Pradesh), medical students (in UP) to the ones who are whole timersin this trade. The Police have arrested another person, Nettar Singh from Kullu. According to the Police, this boy is well educated and seems to have his hands deep into the trade.

Had the paper leak not been proved, what injustice would have had met those students who topped the second exam. Here is a sneak peek into this :

Comparative ranks of present merit holders