 "NEET-UG 2024: Bihar police finds 68 questions matching original exam paper")
The Bihar government has informed the Centre that its investigation indicates a potential paper leak in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, according to a report by The Indian Express.
Bihar’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) has compared 68 questions recovered from a burnt copy of the question paper with the official version provided by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The Ministry of Education received a report from the EOU on Saturday, which revealed that the exam centre code recovered from burnt paper scraps seized by the Bihar police at the residence of arrested candidates belongs to the Oasis School.
This CBSE-affiliated private school in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh was designated by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as an exam centre. The EOU collaborated with a forensics laboratory to authenticate the burnt scraps and match them with the original exam paper and its contents.
On Sunday, the EOU arrested five individuals, bringing the total number of arrests related to the paper leak case to 18.
According to Bihar police, not only were 68 questions identical between the burnt scraps and the original paper, but their serial numbers also matched exactly.
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The recovery of burnt papers on May 5, the exam date, coincided with the arrest of suspected candidates. According to sources quoted by the report, the delay in the EOU’s investigation into matching these papers with the NEET-UG exam was attributed to the initial reluctance of the NTA to share information, including the question paper, with the state government.
The EOU is tracking the paper’s route from the NTA to Oasis School, aiming to uncover the source of the leak.
The report said that when the EOU reached the Oasis School in Hazaribagh to collect all the envelopes and boxes containing question papers, they observed that one envelope had been opened from a different side. Normally, all tamper-proof envelopes containing question papers are supposed to be opened by tearing or cutting from a specified marked area, a procedure all exam personnel are instructed to follow. However, in this instance, one envelope had been opened incorrectly.
Exam paper leak allegations
Ehsanhul Haque, principal of Oasis School, said the examination papers might have been leaked well before they arrived at the school. Haque, who oversees exam administration across four centres in Hazaribagh, including Oasis School, said the CCTV footage revealed the Centre Superintendent and the NTA-appointed Observer receiving the examination packets from one of the designated banks on the morning of May 5, the day of the test, the report said.
Commenting on the burnt scraps showing the Oasis school as an exam centre, Haque said that if the school had committed any wrongdoing, its officials would have been arrested.
Meanwhile, a high-level committee, formed by the Centre to suggest changes to exams and assess the workings of the National Testing Agency (NTA), is scheduled to convene on Monday.
Around 800 students skip re-exam
On Sunday, only 813 out of 1,563 attended the NEET-UG exam. These students were granted additional marks by the NTA to offset delays experienced at six centres on May 5. Concerns were raised about potential score inflation, particularly when six students from a single centre in Haryana achieved perfect scores of 720. A total of 67 students achieved perfect scores in the NEET-UG exam across the country.