On Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) unveiled shocking information on the conspiracy underlying the NEET-UG paper leak case. According to the agency, the suspected mastermind, Pankaj Kumar, together with the principal and vice principal of the Oasis School in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, planned to pilfer the question papers from the medical entrance exam, have them solved, and then distribute them to customers just hours before the examination on May 5.
The agency added in a statement that Kumar behaved with the knowledge of Ehsanul Haque, the principal of Oasis School and the NTA City Coordinator. The agency claimed that the Center Superintendent, Vice Principal Imtiaz Alam, joined the plot as well.
A NEET question paper trunk was brought to the school, according to a CBI spokesperson. A few minutes afterward, Pankaj Kumar was given entry to the strongroom by the school administration. They used sophisticated instruments to break open the trunks.
On the morning of May 5, 2024, the trunks holding the NEET UG 2024 question papers were transported to the school and stored in the control room. Shortly after the trunks arrived, the mastermind mentioned above was granted unauthorized and illegal entry to the room containing the trunks by the aforementioned Principal and Vice Principal. According to a CBI official, “the sophisticated tools used to open the trunk and access the question papers from the trunk have been seized.”
The CBI said that it was able to get to the specified NEET examination center from where the question papers were leaked thanks to the discovered fragments of partially burned question papers.
On the morning before the test, a group of solvers from MBBS programs at AIIMS Patna, RIMS Ranchi, and a medical college in Bharatpur worked through the paper at Hazaribagh. Seven accused solvers have been detained by the agency.
“The solved paper was shared with certain selected students who paid money to the accused. All the solvers, who are MBBS students from reputed colleges, have been identified and most of them were arrested. These solvers were specially brought to Hazaribagh as part of the conspiracy,” the CBI spokesperson said.
The agency said several sets of people helped the main conspirators as they arranged accommodation for the candidates and ferried them. The agency is in the process of identifying the candidates who were given access to the solved question papers.
Thirty-six persons have been arrested thus far.
The Supreme Court said there was insufficient evidence to determine the exam was “vitiated” due to a “systemic breach” of its sanctity on Tuesday, declining to invalidate the entire test and mandate a retest.
The court stated that 155 students who took the exam in Hazaribagh and Patna benefited from the fraud, citing the CBI’s status report.
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