A day after the union education ministry asked Bihar police to submit a detailed report regarding alleged irregularities in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (UG) 2024 in Patna, the concerned officials left for New Delhi with all seized evidence and documents.
“Regarding certain irregularities alleged in the conduct of the examination in Bihar’s capital, a detailed report has been sought from the Economic Offences Unit (EoU) of Bihar Police. The government will take further action on receipt of this report,” said a police official familiar with the matter.
EoU had gathered evidence like burnt question paper, booklet number, OMR sheets, post-dated cheques, aspirants‘ admit cards and qualification papers, seized cell phones, laptops, history of some of the arrested members, and self-statements of arrested persons, including aspirants, their guardians, mafias, and middlemen.
Also read: NEET UG 2024 Row: Arrested student says question paper was same as he got a day before exam
On Wednesday two out of nine NEET-UG aspirants appeared before the officials of EoU to join the investigation and the investigating officers said that they also produced necessary evidence. EoU had served notices on June 15 to nine aspirants, including those living outside the state, in connection with the allegations that the exam’s paper had been leaked.
Seven of the nine aspirants who were served notices are from Bihar, one is from Uttar Pradesh and yet another is from Maharashtra.
They, along with four other aspirants from Bihar and Jharkhand who have already been arrested, are accused of having received the exam’s question paper and answers a day before it was conducted on May 5.
One of the aspirants identified as Isha, a resident of Bakhtiyarpur in rural Patna, arrived at the EoU office with her parents, while another aspirant declined her identity and came with her father and uncle. Senior EoU officials refused to divulge more details about the interrogation of these aspirants.
Also read: NEET row: Deal strictly with any negligence on your part, SC tells NTA, Centre, court issues notice on cancellation plea
Earlier on June 18, the Supreme Court told the Centre and NTA that if there is any negligence in conducting the NEET-UG, 2024 exam, it should be thoroughly dealt with. The EOU is expected to submit its progress report regarding the NEET ‘paper leak’ case to the Supreme Court at the next hearing scheduled on July 8.
In Bihar, Patna police had nabbed 13 persons and recovered admit cards, post-dated cheques, and educational certificates following raids at a hostel from a play school in the state capital on a tip-off that they were allegedly engaged in question leak and working with solvers to prepare the students. This happened on May 4 night while NEET was held on May 5.
Later, the EoU of Bihar Police took up the probe on May 11. The suspicion of question leak grew further after one of the arrested students, Ayush Kumar (19) from Danapur, confessed that he had received the NEET questions a day before the exam and they were the same. He also said that the deal had been struck for a hefty price ranging from ₹30-50 lakh for confirmed admission.
Also read: NEET UG Re-test 2024: NTA releases admit cards for 1,563 candidates re-appearing in exam, download link here
The EoU investigating officer wrote to NTA for the original question paper to tally it with the recovered questions, but despite three letters it has not yet been provided. Beyond that, the probe did not move forward to delve deeper to unravel the nexus, viz. who got the answer key/questions and from where and how the organized gangs once again got active.
Now, the Supreme Court has also sought a response from the Bihar government on the petitions seeking the cancellation of the NEET and CBI Probe. With the name of Bihar also surfacing as the suspected place of alleged question leak, the Bihar police will have to present its side of the story and how far its investigation has progressed. The response has to be sent by July 8, the next date of the hearing.
