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A college in Pipariya, Madhya Pradesh, has landed in a major controversy after a video started doing the rounds online — showing a peon checking answer sheets meant for postgraduate students. The video went viral in no time and left people shocked.
Now, months later, the peon and two other staff members have been fired, while the principal and a teacher have been suspended.
How It All Started: A Video That Shocked Everyone
It all kicked off on January 31, when someone shared a video of Pannalal Patharia, a peon at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Government Post-Graduate College, calmly sitting and evaluating students’ answer sheets like it was no big deal.
Naturally, this didn’t sit well with anyone. People were outraged — not just because it was wrong, but because these were postgraduate exam papers, and the person checking them wasn’t even qualified to teach.
At a time when @BJP4India leaders are rejoicing the cancellation of appointments of 25,000 teachers, a peon has been caught evaluating answer sheets in a govt. college in Madhya Pradesh.
This is the same state that gave us the Vyapam scam, India’s longest-running recruitment… pic.twitter.com/LquWE1g4qZ
— Debangshu Bhattacharya Dev (@ItsYourDev) April 9, 2025
Peon, Guest Lecturer, and Staffer Shown the Door
After the video exploded online, the education department launched a probe — and things unraveled quickly.
Turns out, Patharia didn’t just pick up the answer sheets on his own. He was reportedly paid ₹5,000 to check them, and this whole thing was arranged by guest scholar Khushboo Pagare and Rakesh Mehra — both of whom have now been fired along with the peon.
College Blames Staff Shortage
Apparently, the whole mess happened because the college just didn’t have enough teachers to handle the exam load.
Still, people are asking — how does a staff shortage lead to a peon being asked to grade papers?
That’s what the investigation tried to get to the bottom of.
Principal Suspended, But Says “It Wasn’t Me”
On April 4, Principal Rakesh Verma and political science teacher Ram Ghulam Patel were both suspended for their roles in the situation.
But Verma insists it wasn’t his fault.
“Yes, we had a staff crunch,” he admitted. But he also said:
“How can I be held responsible for it?”
Verma claims it was a teacher who asked Patharia to check the papers, not him.
This whole incident has raised some serious questions about how colleges — especially in smaller towns — are being run.
Teacher shortages are pretty common in government colleges, but letting someone with no academic background at all handle exam papers? That crosses a line.
People online were quick to call it “unbelievable” — and honestly, it kind of is.
