No one to bell this cat

02 December 2003

New Delhi: Spotting the lead business story of the week is no longer a painstaking exercise as with a scam a week there is no dearth for stories to seek. Before the heat and dust generated by the Telgi stamp paper scam could reach their natural levels, the nation has been served with the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) scam.

The Telgi scam involved a kingpin and his touts who had criminal instincts mapped in their genes and chromosomes. The CAT scam also involved a criminally mapped kingpin and touts but they were also helped along by parents, teachers and the future managers, doctors, bankers and judges — the ones who will weave the socio-economic and moral fabric of our society in the days to come.

The CAT examination is the entrance test for students aspiring to enter the six prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) schools and 52 other well-known business schools. Last week the CAT examination was cancelled as the papers were leaked.

The CAT exams was scheduled to be held on Sunday and the night before, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), acting on a tip-off, raided a hotel room in Delhi where they found a few touts and a few future managers poring over the CAT papers and trying to solve it.

One Dr Ranjit Singh, alias Don, who hails from Laloo land, has, over the years, built up a huge conglomerate by leaking out entrance test papers of the medical, banking, judicial and management examinations the night before the exams for modest considerations ranging between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.