More than 1,000 young people arrived at an open field in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, unaware that they would end up nearly naked in front of their own exam papers.
The Indian Army forced them to remove their clothes and remain in their underwear before sitting cross-legged on the grass to complete the written test to become soldiers. Colonel VS Godhra, in charge of the regional office in Muzaffarpur, justified the measure: it was the only way to check so many people without wasting hours looking for cheat sheets hidden in their clothing.
Harishambhu Kumar, one of the 21-year-old applicants, remembers the cold ground and the embarrassment of feeling watched by the uniformed officers who monitored every movement.
The scene did not come out of nowhere. A year earlier, Bihar police had detained around 1,000 applicants who paid other people to take the exam in their place.
The Patna High Court ended up demanding explanations from the Ministry of Defence over the method chosen to curb fraud.