The Economic Offenses Unit (EOU) of the Bihar Police, which took up the investigation into the alleged leak of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) question paper conducted earlier this month, “seized admit cards, expired checks and certificates from members of the gang arrested in the case.
However, officials of the National Examinations Agency (NDA), which conducted the undergraduate medical entrance exam on May 5 in 557 cities across the country and 14 cities abroad, rejected the allegation that the question paper was leaked.
The Bihar EOU’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the case in the state, has said that the evidence collected so far is insufficient to confirm the question paper leak. Officials said they are fully investigating the matter.
However, officials of the National Examinations Agency (NDA), which conducted the undergraduate medical entrance exam on May 5 in 557 cities across the country and 14 cities abroad, rejected the allegation that the question paper was leaked.
“The investigation will now be conducted by the agency’s newly constituted SIT,” EOU, Additional Director General Khan told The Indian Express.
An EOU official said, “SIT has seized post-dated checks indicating payment by candidates to an organized gang. Even if we have evidence of burning of question papers in an examination centre, it is not enough evidence to say that there was a question paper leak.
A total of 13 people have been arrested in this case so far. “Some of these are exam participants and their parents, while others belong to organized gangs,” said an EOU official.
A total of 35 candidates were gang-raped at Learn Boys Hostel and Learn Play School in Patna’s Chemnisak area before the exam, the official said. “Some remnants of burnt question papers have been seized from the concerned school and this will be investigated,” the officials said, adding that one of the arrested, Nitish Kumar from Gaya, was already arrested earlier in connection with the PSC TRE in connection with the 3 question paper leak case from Hazaribagh.
Maintaining that there was no question paper leakage, the senior N.T. A official told The Indian Express, “In an isolated incident at Adarsh Vidya Mandir, Mantown, Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan) for Girls, Hindi-medium students were mistakenly given an English medium question paper and while the invigilator was correcting the mistake, the students forcibly left the examination hall with the question paper. ..
Due to this, the question paper was circulated on the internet around 4 PM, but by then the exam had already started. All other centers across the country. Hence, there is no ‘leakage’ of NEET UG question paper. And the NDA issued a press release on May 6, saying that there was no question paper leak anywhere.
