Today, On 16th July, An engineer arrested by the CBI in connection with the NEET paper leak scandal, accused of stealing question papers from the NTA’s secure trunk. The CBI, investigating various irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has filed multiple FIRs and detained approximately 60 individuals to date.
Bihar: A man apprehended for stealing the NEET-UG examination paper from the trunk of the National Testing Agency in Hazaribagh, Bihar, according to sources. The suspect, Pankaj Kumar, arrested in Patna, while his associate, Raju Singh, detained in Jamshedpur.
Kumar, also known as Aaditya, completed his civil engineering degree at NIT Jamshedpur in 2017. Singh is accused of distributing the stolen examination papers.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pinpointed Hazaribagh as the starting point of the NEET-UG paper leak. Investigations revealed that the papers at Oasis school in Hazaribagh tampered with, leading to the arrest of two individuals after it was found that the school staff did not report the compromised papers.
A senior official reported,
“Nine sets of question papers were sent from SBI Hazaribagh to various centers, and those sent to Oasis school were found with broken seals. The silence of the school staff has implicated them,”
The CBI also conducted searches at the Learn and Play School in Patna, where they discovered remnants of burnt papers. The investigation later handed over to the Bihar Economic Offences Unit (EOU).
Further investigations confirmed that the papers recovered at Oasis school matched the official codes. The principal of the school, Dr. Ehsanul Haque, who also served as the district coordinator for NEET-UG in Hazaribagh, and Imtiaz Alam, the vice-principal and center coordinator, are also under scrutiny.
So far, the CBI filed multiple First Information Reports (FIRs) and arrested nearly 60 individuals in connection with various irregularities in the medical entrance exam. This year’s NEET-UG exam, held on May 5, saw participation from over 23 lakh candidates across 4,750 centers in 571 cities, including 14 international locations.
The exam has been plagued with issues of cheating and impersonation, with ongoing investigations into these matters in several states including Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
This year’s NEET exam witnessed an unprecedented sixty-seven candidates achieving the maximum score of 720, raising doubts about potential irregularities, especially since six of these students were from the same center in Haryana. There claims that these high scores aided by grace marks.
Subsequently, the National Testing Agency (NTA) adjusted the list of top scorers from 67 down to 61 following a reassessment of the results. This adjustment came after a retest was administered to 1,563 candidates on June 24. Out of those scheduled for the retest, nearly half, or 48 percent, did not attend. The NTA revealed that 813 candidates took the retest while 750 choose not to participate.
These changes and ongoing issues, including accusations of paper leaks, continue to be investigated by the CBI.
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During a court session on July 8, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud expressed concerns that the integrity of the NEET exam jeopardized and emphasized the need to determine the severity of the paper leak to decide if the May 5 exam should be annulled.
Chief Justice Chandrachud instructed legal representatives of petitioners, who advocating for a retest of the NEET UG 2024, to consolidate their arguments into a document not exceeding 10 pages, stating that a retest would be considered only as a “last resort.” The case has been scheduled for a further hearing on July 18.
The NEET-UG, managed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), serves as the gateway for students seeking admissions into undergraduate medical programs such as MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and similar courses at both public and private institutions nationwide.