JEE Mains Topper's Claim Turns Out To Be False, Sparks Controversy In Kashmir

Srinagar: A controversy has erupted in Jammu and Kashmir after a female student claimed to have topped the JEE Mains exams, and her ‘success story’ was celebrated by a coaching centre here, followed by her several interviews on social media.

Atiya Zehra from Budgam district of the Kashmir valley claimed that she had scored 99.84 percentile in JEE Mains, whose result was declared on Saturday. Zehra claimed a score of 99.84 percentile, and the SKIE coaching centre in Srinagar started celebrating her “success story" by flashing her interviews on social media with the background of the centre and its hoardings.

But four days later, the claim was allegedly found to be fake, and the girl and her relatives now blame a “technical glitch” on the National Testing Agency website where the results were declared. Her result shows 73 percentile, showing she has not qualified in JEE.

Her relative Dabirah Hassan told ETV Bharat they have emailed the NTA about the confusing results and “are waiting for their response.”

Zehra, the student, said that when she checked the result on the NTA website, she found the percentile and shared it with her parents and teachers, but after three days, she found her result to be different.

In her clarification later, she said that when she logged in with her application number and password three days ago, she found the score and shared it with her parents and teachers. Two days after the result, she received a random call that her result was fake.

She further said that she has sent an email to NTA that she found a glitch in this session. She added that she will wait for the NTA reply.

The student’s result copies were accessed by ETV Bharat. The original result file shows 73.28 percentile, and its PDF, which was shared with the coaching centre by the file shows 99.84, which raised suspicion.

Her claim has landed the SKIE Classes coaching centre in trouble as students and people have started questioning the centre for “tampering and manipulating” the results for publicity.

Dr Saddam Sheikh, who runs the coaching centre, told ETV Bharat that the student, who studied at the coaching centre last year, shared her result with them. “We didn't cross-check. We trusted her just as we trusted other students when they topped the competitive exams.” He said the public outcry has dented the 25 years of coaching credibility of their centre.

Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Vijay Kumar Bhiduri said that the competent authority is “taking action” in the matter.