NEET 2024 'paper leak': Court sends key accused to 14-day CBI custody

A special court in Patna on Wednesday sent the key accused in the NEET-UG paper-leak case, who allegedly stole the exam paper from a trunk of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh, to the CBI's custody for 14 days, officials said.

During its custody of accused Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya till July 30, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to question him on his alleged role, his linkages with other gang members, the payments received and his local contacts who were involved in the entire theft process, the officials added.

Kumar's alleged accomplice, Raju Singh, was sent to the federal agency's custody for 10 days (till July 25) on Tuesday.

The CBI has arrested Kumar, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur, for allegedly stealing the NEET-UG paper from the NTA's trunk in Hazaribagh, the officials said.

Kumar, a resident of Bokaro, was arrested from Patna, they said.

The agency also arrested Singh from Hazaribagh for allegedly helping Kumar steal the paper, they added.

Singh was arrested after detailed questioning, the officials said, adding that the agency has "temporarily sealed" the Raj Guest House in Hazaribagh in connection with the case.

The CBI has also arrested from Hazaribagh Jamaluddin Ansari, a journalist with a Hindi newspaper, the Oasis school's principal, Ehsanul Haque, and vice-principal Imtiaz Alam. Haque and Alam were reportedly designated as coordinators by the NTA in the district.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOU) of the Bihar Police had earlier said the leaked question paper of the National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) was allegedly obtained from the Oasis school in Hazaribagh by the notorious Sanjeev Kumar alias Lutan Mukhiya solver gang.

It had said the investigators had matched a partially-burnt question paper found from a Patna safe house with a reference question paper provided by the NTA, confirming the leak's origin.

However, it could not clearly establish who was behind the alleged paper leak, the officials said.

In interviews with the media, Haque has maintained that the box carrying the question papers could not be opened as its digital lock, which was supposed to unlock automatically, malfunctioned.

Following this, he contacted the NTA, which asked him to use a cutter to open the box, he has said.

The CBI, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical-entrance exam, has lodged six FIRs. The FIR from Bihar pertains to paper leak while the remaining ones from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are regarding impersonation of candidates and cheating.

The agency's own FIR on a reference from the Union education ministry pertains to a "comprehensive investigation" into the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024.

The NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions. This year, the exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the test.