Another teacher said that a girl sent Rs 400 along with her Sanskrit paper and requested in a letter that she be passed. "She wrote that failure in the examination could affect her upcoming marriage, which was recently fixed," he said.

The teacher, on conditions of anonymity, said he finally gave the girl pass marks because "she was just one or two marks short".

In Jagatsinghpur district alone, teachers have found money from dozens of answer papers, a district education official said.

Another teacher, who evaluated papers at M.C. Vidyapeeth in Tirtol in the same district, found Rs.50 and an emotional note in a science paper.

The letter read: Sir, my mother gave me Rs 50 to eat breakfast after completing my exam, but I am sending it to you. Please give me pass marks in this paper so that I can pursue my higher education.

"We have also got similar reports from several evaluation centres across the state but I cannot immediately tell you the exact amount of money and the number of letters we have received," a state education department official said.

The photograph is for representational purposes only. 

Photograph: stock.Xchange