CBI takes over five cases related to NEET-UG

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday took over five cases related to the recently held undergraduate National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG). One of the cases pertains to the alleged paper leak in Bihar’s Patna, another is based on an alleged plot to help 30 candidates in the examination in Gujarat’s Godhra, and the remaining three cases are related to the impersonation of examinees in Rajasthan.

“The special teams constituted for a comprehensive probe into the matter have collected the details of these cases for further investigation. All those arrested by the police in the respective States will be questioned by the CBI in due course,” an official said.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has also registered a case and arrested three persons. Two of these accused ran coaching classes in Latur and had purportedly sold information to some students, claiming that it would help them in the NEET examination. The police have also invoked the recently notified Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. The CBI may take over this case as well.

Chain of custody

The Bihar Economic Offences Unit (EOU) on Monday officially handed over the NEET exam paper leak case to the CBI. The CBI team reached the Bihar EOU’s office at 10 a.m. on Monday, and remained there till late in the evening.

Media was not allowed to enter the EOU’s office in Patna when the CBI team reached there. After a while, a police officer from the Shastri Nagar Police Station, where the case has been lodged under the Indian Penal Code’s Section 407 (criminal breach of trust by carrier, etc.), Section 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant), Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or banker, merchant or agent), and Section 120(b) (punishment of criminal conspiracy).

The EOU, Patna started an investigation into the case on May 5, and has so far arrested 18 people from Bihar and Jharkhand.

After handing over the case, a senior EOU official told The Hindu that the focus of the CBI would now be on the chain of custody of the question papers, in which the statements of several persons had been recorded from the examination centre, the State Bank of India (SBI) branch, and the Blue Dart courier company’s offices in Hazaribagh.

An in-depth investigation would look into what level and at what time the leakage/breach took place in the leaked question papers’ entire chain of custody, the official said. Raids are being conducted continuously to arrest other accused, the official said.

The Bihar EOU had earlier said that a partially burnt question paper seized from the Khemnichak play school in Patna matched with the question paper received from the National Testing Agency (NTA), and the series of that question paper had been sent to the examination centre at the Oasis School in Kallu Chowk, Hazaribagh.

“The envelope in which the NEET question paper was sealed was tampered with. There was no breach from the school’s side, and if there were any loopholes, it was from the transporter’s side,” the principal of the Oasis School, Ahsanul Haque, told The Hindu.

Mr. Haque explained how he knew the contents of the envelope had been leaked. “The EOU official from Patna, who visited here, said the transportation was weak. The police only showed us that there was a bit of a precise cut in the envelope. No common person can understand that. It was understood when the officers pointed out the matter. If any common person sees that, they would not be able to identify it. The officer said that they had witnessed many modus operandi of the same kind so they knew the matter was of that kind,” Mr. Haque said.

“The question paper was transported from the SBI to the school in the vice-principal’s car, along with an observer appointed by the NTA. It was hardly a distance of four kilometres. The Blue Dart courier service transported the question paper to the bank on May 3, and we received it on May 5 at around 8.30 a.m. Blue Dart transported the question paper in an e-rickshaw. There was a complete lapse of SOP (standard operating procedure) on the courier’s side. I really don’t know how the question paper distributed in our school was found in Patna one day in advance,” Mr. Haque said, sharing details on the transportation of the question paper.

He also said that there had been seven layers of packaging, and the digital lock had not worked on the day of the examination, forcing the school administration to use a tool to cut the question papers’ box.

Mr. Haque is also the NTA’s city coordinator, and has been associated with it for the past seven years. In all, 720 students took the NEET exam at the Oasis School in Hazaribagh. The NEET exam has been conducted at this centre several times previously.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav released an old photograph of Mamta Devi with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on social media platform X. Ms. Devi is the wife of Sanjay Mukhiya, one of the key accused in the case, and currently absconding.

Earlier last week, on a complaint from the Union Ministry of Education, the CBI had registered a case against unknown persons for allegedly leaking the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) 2024 examination via the darknet, which exam was subsequently postponed by the Education Ministry following an alert from the Ministry of Home Affairs.