The call arrived — it was go time. The medical doctor rushed to the airport, bound for a midnight operation hundreds of miles away in western India.

       But this mission was not about saving lives. The doctor carried a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a blade and a cellphone — tools for a heist. His target was something worth more than gold in India’s cutthroat competition for government jobs and university placements: the question sheets for a police constable exam.

       After landing in the city of Ahmedabad, the doctor, Shubham Mandal, was hurried to a freight warehouse on its outskirts, according to police documents and interviews with the lead investigator by The New York Times. To avoid surveillance cameras, Dr. Mandal climbed through a back window into a room stacked with boxes. There, the police say, he pried open one marked “confidential” and took out an envelope.

       He used his phone’s camera to photograph each page inside before resealing the envelope and locking the box. He would repeat the exercise at least once in the nights that followed, as new sheets arrived at the warehouse from the printing house, in between staying at a one-star hotel nearby. Waiting in a car each time were three men, including, the police say, the burglary’s mastermind, Ravi Atri.

       Mr. Atri saw himself as part criminal, part Robin Hood. He had taken the national medical school entrance exam five times, and ultimately passed, but never became a doctor. Instead, he turned to stealing tests to help others.

       Image

       Studying for a civil service exam in a park in Delhi.

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