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India NewsGupta, from Ludhiana, had already sat for NEET once. In the original examination on May 3, later cancelled after the paper leak, he had scored 696, according to his own tally with the answer keys. “After studying continuously for two years, when you get to know that the exam has been cancelled, opening the books once again was difficult. But I looked at my peers for motivation and treated it as a second chance to do better,” he said.

He did not expect the outcome that followed. “I never thought I would become the national topper. But after coming out of the examination hall, I couldn’t stop smiling because I knew I had attempted the paper well. My father was waiting outside, and I told him that the exam had gone really well.”

Gupta comes from a family with more than ten doctors, which made medicine, he said, a natural choice — but this year’s path to it was unusually gruelling. Physics and chemistry sections were tougher than expected this time, he said, adding: “I’m proud that I handled both subjects well despite the difficulty level.”

Bansal, a student of KR Mangalam World School in Delhi’s Greater Kailash who secured AIR 2 with a 99.9999 percentile, described the cancellation as demoralising in the moment. “I felt bad when the paper leak happened because I had to study everything once again. But then I thought positively and decided to prepare for one more month with full focus. That helped me achieve this result,” he told PTI.

He found the re-conducted paper more demanding in a different way than the original. “The level of both papers was almost the same. However, the second paper had a lengthier physics section with paragraph-based questions, which made it more time-consuming,” he said, noting the original exam had been comparatively easier because it was shorter.

Bansal was direct in calling for consequences. “Whenever a paper leak happens, there should be a strict mechanism to ensure proper action against those responsible,” he told the news agency.