For Subham Kumar from Patna, the joy of finally getting 700 out of 720 in NEET – UG was short lived, as he soon discovered that despite scoring so high his ranking had slipped to 2321.
“It was my third attempt and I as well as my teachers at the Goal Institute always felt that I could be within 500-500 rank. When I saw my marks, I was happy. But it seems the provision of grace marks this time pushed many candidates above me. Earlier it did not happen,” he said.
Arundhati scored 683, but is concerned that the demand for re-NEET would cause more harm to the genuine students. “The question leak allegation is not a new thing. It happens with almost every exam. The problem has cropped up due to grace mark decision, which has helped a large number of students to sneak through to upset the ranks and create overcorwding at the top. I also expected my rank to be in the range of 3000-3500, but it has crossed 7400. The grace marks should be removed to bring sanity in cut off,” she said.
Anjali Sharma should have ideally been on cloud nine with 672 marks, but she also rued her 12830 rank. “I have got what I deserved, but the problem is how come so many students got so much to change the entire scenario. I had taken NEET last time also. I don’t know the truth behind question leak, but grace marks may have affected many while benefitting a selected few. Such things should not happen,” she added.
Vipin Kumar, founder MD of Goal Institute, a premiere institute in Pat w said that the way NTA opened window for two days on April 9-10 after the last date for filling up forms on March 31, released results suddenly 10 days before the schedule on June 4 and gave grace marks arbitrarily to students to a selected bunch of 1563 students in the name of normalisation smacked of something fishy.
“Eight students at one centre have scored 715-720 marks in a series. The result is that genuine students who have scored 650 and above are also not sure of admission in a government college, as grace marks have pushed hundreds of others above them. Normally, students up to 22000 rank can only get government colleges and for premiere institutions the race is stiffer. Now NTA has to answer why it opened window for two days and for whom and how could it decide that just 1563 students were eligible for grace marks when lakhs took the exam,” he added.
With the Supreme Court on Tuesday issuing notice to the centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) while hearing a petition seeking cancellation of results of the NEET-UG 2024 for undergraduate medical admission, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP, stepped up its demand for a CBI probe into the matter amid allegations of paper leak and mismanagement, which were reported from Patna as well as other parts.
ABVP national general secretary Yagyavalkya Shukla said that they had been carrying out protests across the country, including Patna, with a demand for CBI probe to questions being raised over the sanctity of the exam and prime facie indication of foul play.
“There are certain basic points which raise suspicion. First is 67 students getting 100% marks, second is the provision incorporated for grace marks citing a 2018 Supreme Court order, which may have benefited around 8000 candidates, according to our rough estimate. This may have been a ploy to cover mismanagement,” he said.
The ABVP leader said that the third question is over the mismanagement reported from various centres in Bihar and reports of question leak through professional gangs. “Another important point is the way the result was announced on the election results day on June 4, while it was scheduled for June 14. With the political leadership engaged in election, we suspect involvement of bureaucracy and therefore we want a CBI probe,” he added.
The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police had taken up the probe into alleged leak of question papers of NEET-UG 2024 conducted on May 5 and arrested 13 persons after the police recovered admit cards, post-dated cheques and educational certificates from following raids at a hostel and a play school in Patna.
After one of the arrested students, Ayush Kumar (19) from Danapur, confessed that he had received the NEET questions a day before the exam held on May 5 and they were exactly the same, the EOU investigating officer wrote to NTA for the question paper to tally it with the recovered questions, but despite two letters it has not yet been provided, said NH Khan, EOU additional director general (ADG).
“We are so far not able to corroborate who got the answer key/questions and from where, but our suspicion grew after one of the arrested persons turned out to be the same person who had been nabbed in connection with the teachers recruitment exam and had got bail. Some of the students also confessed that they had been brought there for mugging up the answers. We also received a badly burnt booklet, which has been sent to the forensic science laboratory flr examination. This pointed to some organised racket,” he added.
