Kisan Cold Storage Lane – a well-known address in Musallapur, the coaching hub of Patna – looks much as it always does. The narrow lane houses the offices and classrooms of two of the city’s best-known coaching institutes, both currently in the headlines.
Young aspirants, chasing the dream of a government job, stream in and out as ever, crowding the help desks and jostling shoulder to shoulder for information on course fees, class timings and batch numbers. High above the mouth of the lane hang the two institutes’ signboards. At the top is Khan Global Studies, owned by Faisal Khan, better known as Khan Sir. Just below sits Gyan Bindu GS Academy, owned by Roshan Anand, who belongs to the Yadav community.
Look a little closer, though, and the signboards tell another story: several are smashed.
A week ago, this lane was the scene of a violent battle for dominance between the two institutes – a night of vandalism, gunfire and arrests. The rivalry that erupted here on June 2 has since placed one of India’s most-followed YouTube teachers under police investigation, sent the rival institute’s owner to jail, and turned a local turf war into national news. At its heart lies a peculiar contest: over which institute can claim the most students cracking the state’s government-job exams.
‘Competition exists but this is the first time…’
On the right side of the lane is the front office of Khan Global Studies, where three or four staff members field a steady stream of queries. A short walk away is the office of Gyan Bindu GS Academy, where staff brief newcomers on courses, fees and other details.
Inside the institute’s largest classroom – the one where Khan Sir himself used to teach – another teacher now works through a lesson on a smart board. A flustered young woman asks a Khan Global Studies staffer which room her class is in. Two white cars, belonging to two of the institute’s teachers, are parked in the portico.
An 18-year-old from Sasaram, who had bought Khan Sir’s online course, stands disappointed. He had come hoping to meet his teacher in person. “I came to Patna for an exam, and afterwards, I headed here hoping to meet Khan Sir, but he hasn’t even come to the coaching center today,” he told Newslaundry, filming the classroom on his phone.
A staffer at Khan Global Studies’ front desk said: “Classes are continuing just as before; it is only Khan Sir who hasn’t been coming in for the past 5-6 days.”
Both institutes are trying to keep classes running. Sundar Kumar, a Gyan Bindu staffer who is himself preparing for a government job, says, “We are running three centres and at every centre at least 10 classes are taken. All classes are running as usual and new aspirants are also coming for admission.”
“Competition exists among coaching institutes, but this is the first time I have witnessed such a violent clash and arrests,” says Matiur Rahman Khan – widely known as Guru Rahman – a middle-aged teacher who has run a coaching centre in Musallapur for nearly 24 years.
The result that sparked a conflict
Last year, the Central Selection Board of Constable Recruitment (CSBC), Bihar, advertised 19,383 constable posts in the Bihar Police. A staggering 16 lakh candidates applied. After the written examination, 99,690 were shortlisted for the physical efficiency test; the final list of 19,383 selected candidates was published on May 27.
Within days, Khan Global Studies put up a banner claiming 12,000 of its aspirants had been selected, and that Khan Sir would felicitate them. Roshan Anand of Gyan Bindu countered that 10,000 of his own students had made the cut. The two claims add up to 22,000 successful candidates, for just 19,383 posts. The numbers could not both be true.
Sources within the building claimed the flashpoint came when a banner showing Khan Sir felicitating selected constables appeared on the signboard of the rival Gyan Bindu GS Academy.
That, they claimed, triggered the attack on Khan’s centre.
Around 10 pm on June 2, a group of about two dozen people attacked Khan Global Studies’ main office and coaching centre, pelting it with stones. In a complaint filed at the Kadamkuan police station, the institute’s manager, Kanhaiya Kumar Singh, alleged that the centre had shut for the night after classes ended when, at the behest of Gyan Bindu director Roshan Anand, two men named Abhishek and Prince (Roshan Anand’s brother) arrived at the gate with 15–20 youths. They allegedly dragged out the security guard and assaulted him, leaving him with a head injury, before vandalising the centre’s signboard and barricades and destroying a photograph of Khan Sir.
Because the Bihari aspirant’s gaze is fixed firmly on a government job of any kind, centres coaching for lower-paying state jobs moved in to fill the gap. But there was, back then, no fan culture, and centres did not buy results or fake their success rates. "Some good teachers were still there in the area,” Kumar Vijay adds.
The complaint names the constable exam results as the motive. “More students from my coaching institute were selected in the results. Driven by this jealousy, the incident was orchestrated at the behest of Roshan Anand, the proprietor of Gyan Bindu,” Kanhaiya claimed.
Police arrested Roshan Anand, Abhishek and Prince. Before his arrest, Roshan Anand alleged a conspiracy: “Khan Sir and the owner of the cold storage facility are colluding in a concerted effort to ruin Gyan Bindu…but truth will win,” he told the media. His bail plea has since been rejected.
The phone number of the storage facility’s owner remained switched off at the time of writing this report.
The gunfire drew a separate case. Khan said rounds had been fired during the attack then retracted his remarks. Once a video of the incident went viral, police acted on a screenshot and reached the scene. In their complaint at Kadamkuan, they said inquiries with locals and with Khan pointed to the shooters as his own personal security guards – 38-year-old Pradeep Kumar and 34-year-old Talebar Singh, both from Uttar Pradesh – and arrested both. Under interrogation, the two claimed that Khan Sir had told them: “What are you looking at? Open fire on the crowd immediately; I will handle the consequences.”
On their statements, police booked Khan Sir under the Arms Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. A local court has since granted him interim protection from arrest; the next hearing is set for June 20. “The court has asked for a case diary and details of past cases against Khan Sir if any,” Arvind Mahuar, Khan Sir’s lawyer, told Newslaundry.
The rise, fall and rise of coaching in Patna
Musallapur lies in old Patna. Its name comes from the Arabic musalla, meaning “a place of prayer”. Muslim traders who did business nearby are said to have prayed here, giving the locality its name.
When Patna University and its colleges came up, Musallapur and the areas around it filled with students drawn by cheap lodging, and coaching centres soon followed. But the teaching looked very different then.
“The areas would attract government job aspirants and students of rural pockets as it was very cheap. As aspirants were living in the areas teachers thought to establish coaching centres there. But unlike the current way of one teacher teaching all subjects, that time one teacher would teach just one subject and they were very famous,” says 60-year-old Kumar Vijay, who has run Chronicle Academy since 1994.
For a time, Musallapur and its surroundings were the country’s second-biggest Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) preparation centre after Delhi, and the top destination for banking-exam coaching. “Hindi medium aspirants of Bihar would make more than 10 percent of total qualified UPSC candidates. A major jolt came for Hindi medium and regional aspirants in 2013 when Civil Services Aptitude Test was introduced. It impacted UPSC coaching centres of Patna,” says Kumar Vijay. “The UPSC aspirants started moving to Delhi.”
The UPSC collapse was not the first blow. In 2002, banking coaching took a hit when the central government abolished all Banking Service Recruitment Boards (BSRBs), including Bihar’s.
Because the Bihari aspirant’s gaze is fixed firmly on a government job of any kind, centres coaching for lower-paying state jobs moved in to fill the gap. But there was, back then, no fan culture, and centres did not buy results or fake their success rates. "Some good teachers were still there in the area,” Kumar Vijay adds.
Covid-19 changed everything. As classes moved online, the old guard struggled. “The old teachers were not comfortable teaching online so they had to shut their coaching centres and those who were aware of the power of online classes and YouTube popularity replaced them,” says Kumar Vijay. Khan Sir was one of them.
He rose to fame on YouTube during the pandemic with a video on the India–Nepal border dispute. He told this reporter in an interview last year that he carried a smart board to his village and began uploading lessons to YouTube. His channel, Khan Global Studies, now has 61.1 lakh subscribers.
Roshan Anand started coaching in 2017; his channel, Gyan Bindu GS Academy, has 11.5 lakh subscribers. SK Jha, another teacher who regularly makes news by holding mock tests for thousands of aspirants on the banks of the Ganga in Patna, has 18 lakh.
There is no official count of how many coaching centres operate in Patna, but estimates put the number above 2,000. They cluster in Musallapur, Naya Tola, Bhikhna Pahari and nearby areas, and most prepare students for lower-paying government jobs – in the Railways, or as Bihar Police constables.
With so many institutes chasing the same aspirants, the competition is ferocious. The favoured tactic: loudly announce that scores of your students have cracked this or that exam, then stage a public felicitation.
Khan Sir’s claim of 12,000 selected constables was exactly this. And the institutes don’t stop at numbers – they reward successful candidates with everything from cash to vehicles.
‘Will give the Bullet, the Thar, and double star’
In 2024, Roshan Anand gave Bullet motorcycles to some candidates who finished in the top 20 of the Bihar Police constable exam, and promised a Thar compact SUV to any of his students who secured the number one rank. At the felicitation, he declared: “Some people say they won’t give a Bullet or a Thar, but rather a double star (police rank). My stance is that we will give the Bullet, the Thar, and the double star.”
Khan Sir, for his part, invited 12,000 successful constables to his institute, handed out police uniforms and medals, and hosted a feast.
The rivalry has another, murkier edge: institutes are said to “buy” successful candidates who actually studied elsewhere. A candidate recently selected as a Railways loco pilot told Newslaundry, on condition of anonymity, that after his result a renowned institute approached him through one of its students. “He told me that the teacher would give me a cash reward and also felicitate me; however, I declined the offer because I had not studied at that institute,” he said.
Two months ago, when Abhishek Patel of Bihar topped the Forest Range Officer examination, both Khan Sir and Roshan Anand claimed him as their own.
Guru Rahman, who trains aspirants for the Bihar Police himself, traces the feud to this. “The trading of results is the primary reason behind this conflict. I have never had such a dispute with any coaching institute, but this rivalry between the two of them had been going on for years,” he alleged.
Deepak Kumar, who runs another centre, wants the displays banned outright. “In order to attract job aspirants, coaching centres often display fake figures. This should stop. Teachers should just teach aspirants and that’s it.”
For now, with both star teachers tangled in court, the aspirants keep coming, jostling through Musallapur’s coaching lanes in pursuit of a government job.
A Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) aspirant who studies under Khan Sir is hopeful the rift will pass. “Both teachers are good in teaching and I don’t think they will get entangled in conflict. I think their chamchas (sycophants) are priming. We hope that they don’t fight because it affects aspirants like us.”
For Neha Bharti, preparing at Gyan Bindu GS Academy, the damage is already done. With Roshan Anand in jail, her classes have stalled. “Roshan Sir was taking general studies classes, which has stopped now,” she says. “Both are good teachers and their fight is impacting aspirants.”
The writer is an independent journalist based in Patna.
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