Taken up with officials in the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET, it led investigators to Hazaribagh in Jharkhand from where the question paper was allegedly leaked.
Kumar, the “architect”, allegedly received the solved question paper in PDF format on the morning of 5 May — the day of the exam.
“The state government has issued a notification, and the CBI team is expected to come tomorrow (Monday) to formally take over the case from Bihar EOU.
Sources in Bihar EOU said question papers were transported from Ahmedabad to Hazaribagh via Ranchi through Blue Dart.
The NTA has shared details of 15 candidates who it suspects may have bought the question paper.
The EOU had Thursday submitted a status report to the Ministry of Education. Taken up with officials in the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET, it led investigators to Hazaribagh in Jharkhand from where the question paper was allegedly leaked.
On Sunday, EOU said Baldev Kumar, alias Chintu, is a close associate of Sanjeev Mukhiya, believed to be the kingpin of an inter-state gang. Kumar, the “architect”, allegedly received the solved question paper in PDF format on the morning of 5 May — the day of the exam.
New Delhi: The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police has arrested five men from Jharkhand’s Deoghar district, including one who it says is the “architect” of the alleged NEET (UG) 2024 question paper leak.
Sources told ThePrint that the EOU suspects lapses on the part of courier company Blue Dart and the State Bank of India (SBI) may have led to the alleged leak.
The Bihar Police’s latest statement in this case came on the same day as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case to probe a “larger conspiracy” involving the sanctity of examinations conducted by the NTA.
It is learnt that Bihar government has issued a notification granting CBI consent to probe the matter as is the norm under Section 6 of The Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
“The state government has issued a notification, and the CBI team is expected to come tomorrow (Monday) to formally take over the case from Bihar EOU. The EOU will hand over the updated case diary marking the complete handover of the investigation as part of the protocol,” a Bihar government official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Over the past week, the probe into the alleged paper leak continued at a frenetic pace after the Ministry of Education postponed the UGC-NET and NEET (PG) 2024 exams over suspicion that their integrity may have been compromised.
And on Saturday evening, NTA chief Subodh Kumar Singh was removed from office and placed on ‘compulsory wait’ in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Also Read: Amid NEET & UGC-NET row, Centre forms high-level panel to ensure fair conduct of exams by NTA
EOU’s hunt for accused after inputs from NTA
In a press conference he addressed Thursday, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the Bihar Police EOU was in the process of submitting a detailed report on its probe into the matter.
That same day, Additional Director General (ADG) Nayyar Khan of Bihar Police, in charge of EOU, submitted a summary of the findings of the investigation to the Ministry of Education.
Sources in Bihar Police told ThePrint that Khan made it clear in as many words that the sanctity of the NEET (UG) 2024 examination was breached and that several candidates had access to the questions well before the scheduled start of the examination.
Khan, it is learnt, also apprised the ministry of involvement of an interstate gang in the leak, which according to sources, left room for only one “logical solution” — a CBI probe.
ThePrint earlier reported that NTA was yet to answer questions related to chain of custody and details of a burnt question booklet that the EOU recovered during raids at a play school in Patna. A cross-examination against the reference booklet shared by NTA indicated that the booklet recovered from Patna was from a NEET exam centre in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh.
According to EOU officials, a preliminary examination of the envelope containing question papers and the trunk used to transport them points to the conclusion that the integrity of the exam may have been compromised in certain locations.
The EOU further told the ministry it recorded statements of employees of Blue Dart, which was entrusted with the responsibility of transporting the question papers, and the State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Hazaribagh, where the question papers were kept.
Sources in Bihar EOU said question papers were transported from Ahmedabad to Hazaribagh via Ranchi through Blue Dart. Stored at the local SBI branch, they were then taken to Oasis School in Hazaribagh town through Ravindra Path, sources said, adding that a preliminary probe suggests both Blue Dart and SBI did not comply with the norms.
“Confession of Baldev Kumar alias Chintu and seized envelopes and boxes from Jharkhand suggest it to be the work of an organised inter-state gang,” the EOU said Sunday.
Investigators further revealed that the Mukhiya gang had demarcated a drop-off point for its clients’ — NEET aspirants — approximately two km from the play school in Patna. “Gang members used to be present at the drop-off point, and ferried away aspirants who were their clients in a hired taxi,” EOU said in a statement.
The NTA has shared details of 15 candidates who it suspects may have bought the question paper. Four were already questioned on the day of the exam, while the remaining 11 have yet to be quizzed.
At the same time, all five arrested by the EOU from Deoghar belong to Nalanda. Alleged kingpin Sanjeev Mukhiya also hails from the same district.
While EOU termed Baldev the “architect” of the leak, three others, namely Rajeev Kumar, Panku Kumar and Paramjeet Singh allegedly admitted to providing gang members with duplicate SIM cards, mobile phones, besides arranging accommodations for them.
Meanwhile, a team of CBI officials which was carrying out raids in a village in Bihar’s Nawada district in connection with the UGC-NET leak case, was attacked by a mob Saturday. A case has been filed and four people arrested in this regard.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Why India should ‘create more states’ & the political subtext in NEET controversy
