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Prayagraj Coaching Institutes Sealed After Supporting Students’ Paper-Leak Protests, Owners Allege

In Prayagraj, coaching teachers say official action against their institutes has punished them for standing with students demanding accountability over alleged examination paper leaks.

यूपी: पेपर लीक आरोपों का विरोध कर रहे छात्रों के समर्थन में आए कोचिंग सेंटर योगी सरकार के निशाने पर

The Wire · आकांक्षा कुमार · 10 June 2026 · read the original in Hindi →

Prayagraj: On a narrow, dust-laden road in the busy market of Teliarganj Colony, in the heart of Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj city, there was an odd stillness. Only now and then could one hear the sound of two-wheelers speeding past.

Amid a few shops selling readymade clothes stood an unassuming institute that taught computer typing. A board outside the institute said that courses in Tally computer language and artificial intelligence were taught there.

There, beneath the stairs, inside the computer-typing institute, Vimal* was taking a history class. He wore a blue shirt with “Exampur” written on the front pocket. The class was a one-hour online session on the beginnings of the Delhi Sultanate.

Vimal was telling his students, “After Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, by 1857 the reins of the Mughal Empire had passed into the hands of the British. A key event in this transition was the famous proclamation made at Minto Park in Allahabad in 1858, announcing the transfer of power to Queen Victoria.”

Allahabad, of course, now means Prayagraj, its name having been changed by the Adityanath government in 2018.

Then Vimal suddenly changed the direction of his remarks. Speaking almost as if to himself, he said, “These days some people are telling teachers to focus only on their work of teaching. But one must remember that if something wrong is happening, we should raise our voice against it.”

Before moving on to the next part of the lecture, he added, “Remember that the revolt of 1857 failed because the educated class was unaware of it.”

The benches in front of Vimal lay empty. That was because he was teaching from a makeshift studio. Most of his students were attending the lecture remotely and watching him through a digicam, while notes appeared on a 75-inch smartboard mounted directly behind him.

When this reporter met Vimal on the evening of June 4, he had resumed teaching after a break of several days.

According to a Dainik Bhaskar report published on May 31, the Prayagraj Development Authority sealed three coaching institutes for allegedly failing to comply with fire-safety regulations. Exampur Coaching was among them.

The owners of all three coaching institutes allege that the action was deliberate, taken in response to their support for students protesting an alleged paper leak in the lekhpal examination.

These examinations, it may be noted, are held to recruit lekhpals, village-level clerks in the revenue department who are generally responsible for maintaining land records and keeping records of mutation entries reflecting property transfers.

In a temporary lecture room, The Wire spoke to two teachers associated with Exampur Coaching, seeking their account of the developments and of their support for the protest against the paper leak.

“Batch numbers have fallen by 50%”‘बैच की संख्या 50% कम हुई’

Speaking to The Wire, Vimal said, “Sealing the premises means we cannot take online lectures from our regular studio, so we are holding classes from other places.”

He added, “The situation right now is that the places where we are trying to set up temporary studios are refusing. They are afraid they may face some sort of trouble because of us.”

After the PDA’s action, the number of students in Exampur Coaching’s batches has fallen by nearly 50%. Physical batches that earlier had about 400 students have now been shifted online, reducing attendance in each batch to 100-150.

The coaching centre had smartboards and other teaching material that allowed mentors to conduct “marathon revision sessions” before examinations. Because of this sudden shift to online mode, those regular sessions have stopped.

The sealed Exampur Coaching centre on Hashimpur Road also had 18-20 studios, giving them a kind of space that is impossible to find in makeshift classrooms.

The lecture Vimal was delivering was part of a series meant to help students appearing for the UP Police Constable examination. That examination was held between June 8 and 10.

Another Exampur teacher, Nipun*, who has been teaching since 2018, expressed similar concerns.

Referring to the candlelight march held on May 29 in Prayagraj’s Katra area, Nipun said, “It was a symbolic march, intended to ensure that those in power listened to the students’ concerns.”

On May 21, about 5,000 students who had appeared for the lekhpal examination marched from Manmohan Park crossing to Chandrashekhar Azad Park in protest against the alleged paper leak.

They were joined by candidates who had recently taken the UP Sub-Inspector examination on March 14 and 15. Their demand was that the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board issue the scorecards without delay.

Nipun said, “What is happening now is that students have been driven out because our institute has been shut, while teachers feel they are being harassed. On the one hand, you are not creating jobs; on the other, you have snatched away the livelihood of 400 people.”

Nipun was referring to employees of Exampur Coaching who, according to him, have suddenly become unemployed. He added, “Just look at how we are being forced to take classes in hiding. These are the conditions in which we are teaching.”

“Standing with the students was our moral responsibility”‘छात्रों के साथ खड़े होना हमारी नैतिक ज़िम्मेदारी थी’

Since Exampur Coaching on Hashimpur Road was shut, two Uttar Pradesh Police constables have been guarding its sealed premises.

A notice board put up by the PDA stands outside the gate. It reads: “Important notice: This place has been sealed because it is unauthorized. Breaking the seal, carrying out repair work, or conducting any transaction to buy or sell this property will be considered illegal, and appropriate action will be taken.”

As I was taking photographs of the notice board, a policeman photographed me. Later he asked which organization I represented. While I was speaking with some Exampur Coaching staff members outside the building, a third policeman stood nearby.

A staff member associated with Exampur Coaching said, “After the lekhpal examination ended on May 21, some videos went viral which showed that at certain centres some candidates were coming out nearly an hour after the scheduled end time of the examination, 12 noon. That made students suspicious.”

It is worth noting that videos showing such incidents at examination centres in Lucknow, Deoria and Muzaffarnagar went viral on social media.

On May 24, however, the Adityanath government rejected these allegations in a statement issued through the Department of Information and Public Relations.

The press note said, “The lekhpal examination has been conducted peacefully and fairly. Even so, some people are spreading misinformation with malicious intent, which is objectionable. The police will take strict action against such people.”

Speaking to The Wire over the phone, Exampur Coaching founder Vivek Kumar said, “Videos from some centres had gone viral in which candidates leaving the examination hall gave no answer when asked the reason for the delay. In fact, the UPSSSC should have investigated such centres and released the CCTV footage. Something should have been done to dispel this atmosphere of distrust. Instead, it acted as a spark for students who felt their concerns were not being heard.”

It should be noted that the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission, or UPSSSC, was the body that conducted the lekhpal examination.

Vivek Kumar told the reporter, “We spend nearly 15-18 hours guiding these students, so an emotional bond develops. Most students who come to Prayagraj for coaching classes come from modest backgrounds, and we felt it was our moral responsibility to stand with them.”

Kumar had been asked why, as the owner of a coaching institute, he had been so vocal on the issue of the paper leak.

In another one-page notice pasted outside the gate of Exampur Coaching, the PDA has stated the reasons for sealing the premises.

The notice sent to Vivek Kumar on May 30, 2026, says, “With regard to the construction built on an area of 250 square metres, including the basement, ground floor and two upper floors, a notice was issued on May 11, 2026. In it, you were informed of violations of rules under Sections 14 and 15 of the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973.”

Section 14 of this Act, notably, concerns rules relating to the development of land, while Section 15 concerns obtaining approval from the relevant vice-chairman of the local development authority.

Speaking to The Wire, Kumar denied having received any earlier notice.

Kumar said, “We had no information about the earlier notice. The notice sent this time raises concerns related to fire safety and the generator. If we had been given even three or four days, we would have tried to resolve the issue.”

“A notice had already been issued”: PDA official‘पहले ही नोटिस जारी किया गया था’: पीडीए अधिकारी

In this connection, The Wire contacted PDA secretary Vineet Kumar Singh, but he declined to comment.

Another PDA official, who requested anonymity and was associated with the process of issuing notices to all three coaching institutes, told the reporter, “For certain constructions, a fire-related no-objection certificate is required, and under Section 15(1) of the UP Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973, a completion certificate is mandatory. Notices had been issued from time to time in this regard.”

According to the official, the most recent notice issued to Exampur Coaching was dated November 27, 2025.

The official said, “We are following due process. Any construction within a 500-metre radius of a residential area has to comply with certain rules and laws.”

He had been asked whether the decision to seal the premises was linked to the coaching institutes’ support for the students’ protests.

On this, Kamal Krishna Roy, a senior advocate at the Allahabad High Court, said, “According to the law, if a construction has not been carried out by encroaching on government land, a drain, a road or a lane, the owner generally has to submit a revised map along with the prescribed compensation and penalty, if any. Demolition action is the last resort.”

Roy, who is also a human-rights activist, was among the prominent voices in 2022 after the PDA demolished the house of Welfare Party of India leader Javed Mohammad in Prayagraj. The demolition took place after Javed had called for a protest against then BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

At the time, Newsclick reported that Roy, who represented Javed Mohammad, had alleged that after the Uttar Pradesh Police named Javed as the main accused in an FIR, the PDA issued a demolition notice with a backdated date.

“We have started batches for one rupee; you can call me an education mafia”

Less than a week after students protested over the alleged paper leak in the lekhpal examination, a public meeting by Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh at Prayagraj’s Circuit House was disrupted, and two student leaders who had led the protest, Pankaj Pandey and Ashutosh Pandey, were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

On June 1, the protesting students had planned another candlelight march. But after the arrest of the student leaders, when this reporter reached the designated spot in Prayagraj’s Govindpur area that evening, there were no student protesters there and the place lay empty.

Meanwhile, a large protest over the paper-leak issue has now been called in Lucknow on June 12.

Roy, the lawyer who was present during Sanjay Singh’s interaction with students on the paper-leak issue, had earlier told The Wire, “We were demanding that the authorities and the government stop paper leaks, but the government was telling us to stop talking about the issue altogether. In the hall where the meeting was taking place, the lights and AC were suddenly switched off at the officials’ instructions.”

In a letter dated June 5, 2026, a copy of which has been seen by The Wire, AAP leader Sanjay Singh urged the Rajya Sabha chairman to take action against Prayagraj ADM (City) Satyam Mishra.

Singh alleged that while a Member of Parliament was listening to students’ complaints regarding allegations of paper leaks and examination cancellations, the official tried to obstruct his work.

Back in the makeshift studio, Vimal and Nipun are preparing themselves for difficult days ahead. Away from the air-conditioning of their coaching institute, the two are getting used to taking lectures under a fan in temperatures above 40°C. If the student movement continues in the coming days, they plan to keep supporting it.

Speaking about initiatives begun to help students coming to coaching institutes, Nipun said, “We have started batches for students at one rupee, 11 rupees and 99 rupees. You may call me an ‘education mafia.’”

Exampur Coaching’s low-cost online classes often draw as many as 100,000 students into a single online session. Vimal added, “Even so, there are students who come and say they are not in a position to pay even 99 rupees.”

Nipun said, “If examinations themselves cannot be conducted fairly, what is the point of teaching?”

Looking through messages sent to his WhatsApp number by competitive-examination candidates, Nipun stopped at one that had disturbed him deeply.

Nipun added, “Just imagine: a student goes to take an examination, and this is his last chance, according to the age limit for the exams. If that very question paper is leaked, his entire life will be ruined.”

He then showed the reporter, on his mobile phone, a message from a student that had prompted him to contact his lawyer immediately.

Below a video of vandalism at an examination centre in Prayagraj after allegations of a paper leak in the recent SSC GD examination, the student had messaged Nipun: “The Prayagraj event. What should be done about this? Should one commit suicide?”

The Wire had contacted the owners of two other coaching institutes, Maroof Ahmad of Super Climax Coaching and Ravi Tiwari of Target One Coaching. Although they initially agreed to speak, their phone numbers were switched off when the reporter contacted them again.

*Some names have been changed to protect identities.

(If you know someone, a friend or family member, who is mentally distressed and at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation has a list of phone numbers they can call for a confidential conversation. iCall, a counselling service run by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, has compiled a crowdsourced list of clinicians and therapists across the country. You can also take them to the nearest hospital.)

(Click here to read this report in English.)(इस ख़बर को अंग्रेज़ी में पढ़ने के लिए यहां क्लिक करें.)

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