Patna: Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) aspirants across Bihar on Tuesday offered prayers for the wellbeing of senior police officer Abhyanand, involved with Super 30 - an initiative which selects a group of 30 aspirants for the prestigious institutes from poor and marginalised families and provides free coaching, food and accommodation.

Abhyanand, an additional director general of police, who coached such students, suddenly fell seriously ill after he arrived to conduct a test for selection of Super 30 students here.

"Minutes before a test for selection of students for Super 30 was to be began, Abhyanand fell ill and was rushed to a private nursing home, where doctors detected a stone in his gall bladder and operated on him," a family friend said.

"This news spread like wildfire across Bihar and outside, and students, their parents, teachers and others offered prayers at different places of worship and at their residences and offices for wellbeing of Abhyanand Sir, as he is popularly known here," said Arshad Ahmad, a Super 30 aspirant.

Hundreds of students and their parents had come to the test centre and were shocked after news of Abhyanand's illness reached them. However, they were told that Abhyanand, before being admitted to the hospital, advised them to take the test as scheduled.

Abhyanand, who launched Super 30 along with mathematician Anand Kumar in 2003, had started another experiment to spot talented students, particularly from marginalised sections and Muslim students from poor families and to help them crack the IIT entrance examination, on the lines of Super 30.

As many as 18 of Super 30's students cracked the IIT entrance in 2003. The number rose to 22 in 2004 and 26 in 2005. This year, all 30 students had cleared the entrance. IANS