Engineer Stole NEET Question Paper From Exam Body's Trunk, Arrested By CBI

A man who stole NEET-UG paper from the trunk of the National Testing Agency in Bihar's Hazaribagh before they were allegedly leaked and his associate has been arrested by the CBI today, sources said. Pankaj Kumar, who stole the paper, has been arrested from Patna while Raju Singh was caught in Jamshedpur.

Mr Kumar aka Aaditya did his civil engineering from NIT Jamshedpur in 2017, the sources said. His accomplice Raju had allegedly distributed the leaked paper, they said.

 Leak Had Genesis In Hazaribagh: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier zeroed in on Hazaribagh as the origin place of the NEET-UG paper leak. The paper was leaked by Oasis school in Hazari Bagh, the CBI probe said, adding, that two sets of papers which reached there had their seals broken and instead of flagging the issue the staff of the school remained tight-lipped.

"Nine sets of question papers were dispatched from SBI Hazaribagh to different centres. The ones that reached Oasis school centre had their seals broken. The staff there did not raise an alarm and thus, their role is established," a senior official disclosed.

"Based on technical evidence, they had made searches in Learn and Play School in Patna where some burnt papers were recovered," he explained adding that the case was later taken over by the Bihar Economic Offences Unit (EOU).

On June 21, the NTA disclosed that the code matched the papers found in Oasis school, he added.

Interestingly, the principal of the school, Dr Ehsanul Haque, was also the district coordinator for the NEET-UG exam in Hazaribagh and vice-principal Imtiaz Alam was the centre coordinator. 

The CBI, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered several First Information Reports (FIRs) and made nearly 60 arrests so far. 

The NEET-UG exam - conducted by the National Testing Agency for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions - was held on May 5 this year. The exam has been mired in controversy, with allegations of cheating and impersonation. The CBI FIR from Bihar pertains to paper leaks, while those registered in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, are linked to the impersonation of candidates and cheating.

This year, the exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the test.

67 Students Scored Perfect 720

Sixty-seven students had scored a perfect 720 in this year's exam, unprecedented in the NTA's history, with six from a Haryana centre figuring in the list, raising suspicion about irregularities in the examination. It was alleged that grace marks contributed to the 67 students sharing the top rank.

The number of candidates sharing the top rank was reduced to 61 from 67 as the NTA announced the revised results on July 1 after conducting a retest for 1,563 candidates. Forty-eight per cent of students who were scheduled to retake the exam on June 24 did not turn up. Of the total, 813 (52 per cent) gave the retest and 750 skipped, the data released by the NTA showed.

The exam has also been riddled with allegations of paper leaks which are being probed by the CBI.