100 candidates from Bihar-Jharkhand got the NEET-UG paper: Mafia received it on WhatsApp before the exam; He printed it and made the students memorize it

The Economic Offenses Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police submitted the report of the NEET-UG paper leak case to the Union Education Ministry. According to sources, it has been said that 100 candidates from Bihar-Jharkhand had received the NEET paper before reaching the center on May 5.

This leak was carried out jointly by the exam mafia and cyber criminals. Chintu, Mukesh, Panku, Paramjeet, Rajiv Kumar, who were arrested from Deoghar, Jharkhand a day earlier, were involved in this. Chintu is a relative of Sanjeev Mukhiya, the main mastermind of this leak scandal. Mukesh is from Chintu’s village. While Panku, Paramjeet and Rajiv are cyber criminals.

According to EOU, on the morning of May 5, the NEET-UG question paper with answers reached Chintu on his WhatsApp in a PDF file. He got it printed from the WiFi printer of Learn and Play School located in Khemnichak. It is being investigated from where the paper came on Chintu’s phone.

Students were made to memorize the paper in Patna’s play school and hotel
After printing them, the exam mafia made the students memorize the questions and answers at the Learn and Play School in Khemnichak, Patna, a hotel near the bypass and in some cities of Jharkhand. After this, the mafia itself sent the candidates to the exam centres.

Bhaskar had reported on Sunday that the paper allotted to Hazaribagh’s Oasis School had reached the mafia. The trunk from which the question paper of booklet no. 6136488 was stolen was tampered with. Now that trunk will be sent for FSL investigation.

The police had found pieces of burnt paper from the Learn and Play Hostel in Patna.

Education Ministry said- NEET paper was limited to only a few people
Sources in the education ministry say that the police have proved the paper leak, but it was limited only to Patna, Nalanda and Vaishali. A top official of the higher education department says that the NEET case is completely different from the UGC-NET case.

The UGC-NET paper was available on Telegram and Darknet, which are connected to the internet network. Whereas, the NEET paper was only available to a limited number of people. But, this is also a serious matter, so the case has been handed over to the CBI to get to the bottom of the matter.

750 out of 1563 students did not appear in NEET-UG re-exam
For 1563 students who got grace marks in NEET-UG, re-examination was held on Sunday (23 June) at 7 centers in five states. Only 813 students appeared in it and 750 did not appear for the examination. In Jhajjar, Haryana, which produced 6 toppers in the examination held on 5 May, 42% of the students did not appear for re-NEET.

The exam was held in a single shift from 2 PM to 5 PM. Only those students appeared in the exam who were informed about it by NTA through email.

NTA’s DG was removed on Saturday night
The central government removed NTA (National Testing Agency) Director General Subodh Kumar Singh at 9 pm on Saturday (June 22). Pradeep Singh Kharola has been appointed as the new DG. Kharola is the CMD of Indian Trade Promotion Organization. On May 1, 2024, he was given the additional charge of Chairman of Staff Selection Commission (SSC).

Pradeep Singh Kharola is a retired IAS officer of 1985 batch of Karnataka cadre.

A 7-member committee was formed to reform NTA
Earlier on the afternoon of 22 June, the Ministry of Education announced a 7-member high level committee to prevent irregularities and bring transparency in NTA examinations. Former Chairman of ISRO and former Director of IIT Kanpur K. Radhakrishnan will be its chief. This committee will submit its report to the Ministry of Education in 2 months.

NTA’s committee had suggested cancelling grace marks and conducting re-examination
Many candidates had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the grace marks given to 1563 candidates in the NEET exam. NTA had formed a committee to investigate this matter.

This committee held a meeting on 10, 11 and 12 June. The committee has suggested that the score cards of 1563 candidates who got grace marks should be cancelled and a re-examination should be conducted for them. At the same time, these students should also be informed of their original scores without grace marks.

20 thousand students filed a petition
About 20 thousand students in different states across the country have filed petitions against the irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 examination.

In the petition filed against grace marks, it was said that NTA has not yet told what method they adopted to give grace marks to the students. At the same time, there was no mention of the provision of giving grace marks in the information bulletin issued by NTA before the exam. In such a situation, giving grace marks to some candidates is not right.

NEET exam is held for admission to undergraduate medical courses
NEET UG i.e. National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is an undergraduate national level entrance exam. NEET exam is conducted for admission in medical and dental courses. This year around 24 lakh students took this exam. Through this, admission is given in MBBS, BDS and other medical courses in India and some other countries including Russia, Ukraine.

Supreme Court refuses to ban tax counselling
The Supreme Court has refused to ban NEET counseling. A student had filed a petition on Friday, June 21. He said that 773 candidates have failed without getting grace marks. The entire exam should be cancelled and conducted again. The case is to be heard on July 8, so the counseling starting from July 6 should also be extended for 2 days. On this, the Supreme Court refused to ban counseling. However, on the demand for re-examination, NTA has been asked to file a reply in 2 weeks. Earlier also, while hearing 2 separate petitions, the Supreme Court has refused to ban counseling.

Education minister first defended himself, then accepted the irregularities in NTA
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a press conference on June 20, ‘In the case of NEET, we also have to take care of the interests of lakhs of meritorious students who have passed the exam. A new committee will be formed which will give suggestions to improve NTA.’

#WATCH Delhi | Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says, “In the context of the NEET exam, we are in touch with Bihar government. We are receiving some information from Patna. Patna Police are investigating and a detailed report will be submitted by them. Following… pic.twitter.com/cNVToDaXnZ