'What was my fault?': How India's exam paper leak ended young lives

What the report says

BBC World News reports that two Indian families are describing the personal cost of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak and the retest that followed. The article focuses on two students who died by suicide after the exam was cancelled and rescheduled: 17-year-old Kahaan Patel in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and 23-year-old Pradeep Kumar in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district. It says their deaths were among at least 21 suicides allegedly linked to the scandal, which also triggered student protests in Delhi and led to the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Kahaan had been preparing to become a doctor and had moved with his family from Surat to Ahmedabad to support that goal. His parents say he was distressed when the leaked-paper news forced a retest, repeatedly questioning why honest students should be made to sit the exam again. The report describes him as a teenager who also enjoyed football, books and guitar, and says he died just days before the rescheduled exam.

Pradeep’s story shows a different but equally heavy burden. His family sold land and borrowed money so he could attend coaching and pursue medicine, a path that could have moved him into the professional middle class. After the paper leak, he faced the prospect of yet another attempt at the exam. The family says he appeared calm, but he took his life before the retest.

The BBC’s account uses these cases to illustrate how exam corruption in India can amplify pressure on young people and families who have invested years and savings in a single career path.