 "Protest, NEET Protest")
Amid the controversy surrounding the NEET-UG 2024 exam, scorecards of four Bihar-based students, accused of accessing the question paper before the exam, have surfaced.
Anurag Yadav, one of the four arrested in the alleged paper leak case, told the police that he was preparing for the medical entrance exam in Kota when his uncle Sikandar Yadavendu — also arrested — called him back to Samastipur, assuring him the exam was "sorted".
Anurag claimed he received some questions and answers the night before the exam, which then appeared in the actual test.
Exam results manipulated
A NDTV report stated that Anurag’s scorecard from the National Testing Agency (NTA) shows he scored 185 out of 720, with a total percentile of 54.84. However, his individual subject scores are unusual. He achieved 85.8 percentile in physics and 51 percentile in biology, but only 5 percentile in chemistry.
The report shows that Anurag didn’t have enough time to memorise the Chemistry answers, despite getting the questions beforehand. His all-India rank is 10,51,525 and his OBC category rank is 4,67,824.
Sikandar Yadavendu admitted to the police that he connected four students with Amit Anand and Nitish Kumar — also arrested — for the question papers. Amit and Nitish allegedly demanded Rs 30-32 lakh per student.
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However, out of greed, Sikandar told each student they needed to pay Rs 40 lakh for the papers.
Exam scores raise suspicion
While Anurag has been arrested, the other three students have been questioned. All are from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. One student scored 300 out of 720, with a 73.37 percentile. Yet, this student’s scores also raise concerns: 87.8 percentile in Biology, but only 15.5 and 15.3 percentiles in Physics and Chemistry respectively, the report said.
The other two students’ scorecards show better performance across all subjects. One scored 581 out of 720, and the other 483.
Nationwide exam security lapses
A third-party review conducted on the exam day found that out of 399 visited exam centres, 186 (46 per cent) did not have the required two functioning CCTVs in each exam room. These cameras are meant to provide live feeds to the Central Control Room at the NTA headquarters in New Delhi for monitoring purposes.
Additionally, in 68 (16 per cent) of the 399 sampled exam centres, the strong room was not guarded. Regulations require the strong room to be secured until the distribution of question papers.
Furthermore, at 83 centres, the biometric input was different from the designated staff assigned to those centres.
What’s the NEET 2024 row?
A remarkable 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720/720, with some even scoring 718 or 719 — marks that many argued were unattainable due to the exam's structure. The NTA attributed these results to several factors: A relatively easier paper, the decision to award extra marks to students who lost time due to errors and delays caused by the NTA staff and invigilators, and an incorrect question.
