NEET row: Bihar Police unravels paper leak plot, NTA debars 110 aspirants

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday took over the probe into the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam and dispatched its teams to several states for investigation. Meanwhile, the Economic Offenses Unit of the Bihar Police arrested five people in the NEET paper leak case. A total of 18 people have been arrested so far in the state.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which is receiving flak over the cancellation and postponement of several competitive exams, has debarred 17 students from exam centres in Bihar after detection of “malpractices”. As of now, a total of 110 students have faced similar action since the controversy erupted.

On Sunday, out of 1,563 students who were asked to retake the NEET exam over the grace marks controversy, only 813 appeared for the test. These candidates were awarded grace marks by the NTA to make up for the loss of time at six centres due to a delay in the start of the examination on May 5. There were allegations that it led to the inflation of marks and contributed to six of the candidates from the same centre in Haryana scoring perfect 720 marks. A whopping 67 students scored full marks in the NEET-UG exam across the country.

The CBI filed an FIR in the NEET-UG case under sections 20-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating). The Bihar and Gujarat governments also issued notifications on Sunday to transfer cases of NEET-UG paper leaks registered by their police to the CBI.

The Patna police on Sunday evening arrested five people who had been detained from Jharkhand’s Deoghar. All of the accused are residents of Nalanda. They are: Baldev Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Panku Kumar, Rajeev Kumar and Paramjeet Singh.

Baldev Kumar, associated with the notorious Sanjeev Kumar alias Lutan Mukhiya gang, allegedly received the solved answer sheet of the NEET-UG exam in PDF format on his mobile phone a day before the exam, the statement said. The police statement claimed the members of the Mukhiya gang, accused of orchestrating multiple interstate paper leaks, were the source of the leaked answer sheet.

Baldev and his associates printed the answer sheet to students who gathered at a safe house in Patna’s Ram Krishna Nagar on May 4. Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand, who were arrested earlier, had brought the students to the safe house.

The NEET-UG question paper was obtained from a private school in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, by the Mukhiya gang, said the police statement.

The investigators have found partially burnt question paper recovered at the Patna safe house. They have matched the paper with the reference question paper provided by the National Testing Agency (NTA), confirming the leak’s origin.

The National Testing Agency had debarred 63 students in Bihar for adopting unfair means in the NEET exam. On Saturday, it debarred 30 students from Gujarat’s Godhara. Now 17 more have been debarred, taking the total to 110. “Based on the inputs received, 17 candidates who appeared from centres in Bihar were debarred. This takes the number of total candidates debarred from the exam this year to 110,” an NTA official said.

The Ministry of Education has asked the CBI to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities, including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust and destruction of evidence by candidates, institutes and middlemen. They will also investigate the possible role of public servants.

Meanwhile, the Central government’s high-level panel formed to suggest exam reforms and reviewing the functioning of the National Testing Agency, will meet on Monday. It is being headed by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan.
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