The contentious matter of anomalies in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) has taken a new turn after four persons who were arrested admitted that the previous evening’s medical entrance exam question paper had been leaked.
Last week, claims of a NEET-UG2024 exam leak and the awarding of grace marks to more over 1,500 applicants caused nationwide student demonstrations. The education minister denied the paper leak, even though the grace marks were eventually removed and the students were given the opportunity to retake the exam.
Aspirant Anurag Yadav, his uncle Sikandar, a junior engineer at the Danapur Municipal Council, and two other men, Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand, are among the four men from Bihar who have been taken into custody.
They acknowledged that they were forced to memorise the question paper after receiving it the day before the test. They added that the same questions were asked in the exam the next day in a statement to the Bihar police.
Anurag Yadav, who was studying at the Kota coaching hub for the exam, claimed that his uncle had begged him to come back because he was going to leak the paper. “I had to read it and commit it to memory at night. I found that the exam consisted of the same questions that I had successfully memorised. “I confessed my crime after the exam when the police came and caught me,” he added.
According to Sikandar, the other two accused, Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand, told him that it would cost ₹30–32 lakh for each candidate to pass NEET and that they could leak the question paper of any competitive test.
“I agreed and told them I have four boys (who need help in passing the exam). On June 4 night, I took them with me and Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand gave them the question paper. Out of greed, I had also asked them for ₹ 40 lakh each instead of ₹ 30 lakh,” he told the cops.
He added that the following day, when a car check was conducted, he was discovered in possession of the students’ admit cards and admitted his guilt.
On May 5, around 24 lakh candidates took the NEET-UG 2024 exam for undergraduate medical programmes. Nonetheless, there were accusations of a question paper leak and the awarding of grace marks to more than 1,500 students, clouding the results, which were announced at least ten days ahead of schedule.
The matter also assumed a political dimension as opposition parties accused the government of corruption, paper leaks, and vote rigging. The “epicentre of paper leak” was BJP-ruled states, according to Congressman Rahul Gandhi.
Dharmendra Pradhan, the minister of education, refuted the claims last week. Claiming there was no proof of any manipulation, he charged the opposition with disseminating false information.
In reviewing a number of petitions regarding purported exam anomalies, the Supreme Court harshly criticised the National Testing Agency on Tuesday, stating that it needs to make sure all applicants are treated equally.
