Mohammed Ibrahim, who had cleared the IIT Main exam, was stunned to find he had failed in physics and chemistry in the Intermediate exam, the results of which were declared on Tuesday.

The student from JPK Plus-Two High School in Sasaram was among the roughly 300 Intermediate-fail students who protested from 11am to 2pm on Wednesday in front of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) office on Budh Marg over the Intermediate results.

Police had to lathicharge to control the protesting students, who shouted slogans again-st chief minister Nitish Ku-mar, education minister Ashok Choudhary and BSEB officials. "I had cleared IIT Main test securing 89 marks," Ibrahim said. "Based on the Mains score I had also appeared in the JEE Advanced and was planning to appear for Mains counselling. But now all my hope for studying engineering at IITs or NITs has been shattered."

Ibrahim got 15 out of 70 in physics (theory) and 16 out of 70 in chemistry (theory) in the Intermediate exam.

There were many furious students like Ibrahim at the protest. "We want rechecking of answer sheets," said Sonu Kumar from D.N. Yadav School, Kaimur, who scored 0 in chemistry (theory), 8 in physics (theory) and 16 out of 100 in mathematics.

Both Ibrahim and Sonu claimed there was large-scale negligence on part of teachers who evaluated the answer sheets or technical staff who uploaded the marks in the mark-sheet.

Manish Kumar, from LN College in Bhagwanpur, Vaishali, claimed he had appeared in the Intermediate examination but the results show he was absent for all papers.

Many students echoed Ibrahim's lament that their hopes of studying at IITs and NITs had been dashed.

To be eligible for the JEE Advanced test - the last hurdle to clear for admission into the IITs - a candidate must secure at least 75 per cent aggregate marks in Class XII (or equivalent) board examination. The aggregate marks for reserved category candidates should be at least 65 percent.

Only 30.11 percent of students who took the Intermediate exam under the science stream have passed this year and of those only 8.93 per cent students have secured first division (above 60 per cent). Bihar will be woefully underrepresented at the IITs this year, the protesting students rued.

The students also claimed that there were anomalies in the Intermediate results because the evaluation work was assigned to teachers from primary schools.

BSEB chairman Anand Kishor dismissed the allegation.

"The allegation that Intermediate copies were evaluated by teachers from primary schools is not true," he said. "Only few copies were evaluated by primary teachers and that too by those having postgraduate degrees. Due to the strike call by secondary teachers of unaided institutions the evaluation work was delayed, but copies were evaluated by Plus-Two schools' and constituent colleges' teachers."

He also rubbished media reports that the Intermediate arts topper is a "fake" student who had appeared in the examination from a private school in Samastipur despite being a resident of Giridih in Jharkhand.

"I have checked the fact," Kishor said. "The boy, Ganesh Kumar, has appeared from RNSJN Ucchtar Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Chakhabib in Samastipur district. The school has poor infrastructure, but the student is genuine."

At least two students, one from Buxar district and another from Pirpainti in Bhagalpur district, committed suicide on Wednesday, allegedly over poor Intermediate results.