Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 16: The man who actually stole the question paper of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examinations on May 5 from the trunk of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conduct the test, and the person who helped him to steal the question paper were arrested by the central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday.
Sources said while Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya, the person who stole the paper from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh, was arrested in Patna, his associate Raju Singh, was arrested who stole the paper, has been arrested from Patna while his associate Raju Singh who helped him to steal the paper, was caught in Hazaribagh.
Pankaj Kumar, a resident of Bokaro, is a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Jamshedpur, the officials said. Raju Singh who allegedly helped Kumar in stealing the paper was responsible for passing them on to other gang members and to the “solver gang.”
The premier investigations agency has made significant strides in the investigation and the number of accused arrested by them has gone up to 14. Sources claim that the CBI was close to arresting the main accused Sanjeev Mukhia in the matter.
According to reports, there were discrepancies in the trunk in which these question papers had arrived at Hazaribagh’s Oaisis School. It was discovered that the seals that were stuck behind one of the boxes, was broken and an envelope which had 24 question papers were taken out. A very precise and professional cut was made at the bottom of the envelope through which the paper was taken out. Pictures of the question paper were also taken and then were given to the solver gang.
The 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 Hazaribagh, 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 six FIRs. The FIR from Bihar pertains to leakage of paper while the remaining from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are linked to impersonation of candidates and cheating. The agency’s own FIR on a reference from the Union Education Ministry pertains to a “comprehensive investigation” into the alleged irregularities in the examination.
On June 27, the CBI made its first arrests in the NEET-UG paper leak case and detained two men from Bihar. The two accused, identified as Manish Prakash and Ashutosh Kumar, were arrested from Patna. Reportedly, Ashutosh is accused of providing premises where NEET aspirants studied the leaked question paper, while Manish allegedly arranged the paper.
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued notices to private parties on a batch of pleas filed by the NTA seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts on the NEET-UG row to the top court to avoid multiplicity of litigations. Earlier, a vacation bench had on June 14 issued notices to the parties on similar pleas by the NTA.
The NEET-UG 2024 was conducted on May 5 for 23.33 lakh students at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas. The results were released on June 4 but soon owing to a large number of toppers, reports of a paper leak surfaced on social media. The case is currently under investigation by the CBI.
Amidst the court proceedings on July 8, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud noted that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised and the extent of paper leak was important to decide whether the exam held on May 5 be cancelled or not.
The CJI also directed all counsels for petitioners who wish for a NEET UG 2024 re-test to file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages and highlighted that a retest would be the “last resort.” The CJI has now listed the matter for hearing on July 18.
The NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
