The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday took over the investigation into the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam and has sent its teams to several states for investigation and has also registered an FIR in the matter. Meanwhile, the Economic Offenses Unit of Bihar Police has arrested five people in the NEET paper leak case. So far a total of 18 people have been arrested in the state in this case. At the same time, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is facing criticism for canceling and postponing several competitive examinations, has expelled 17 students from centers in Bihar after “malpractice” was detected. NTA has taken major action against a total of 110 students so far since the controversy started.
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On Sunday, out of the 1,563 students who were asked to re-appear for the NEET exam over the grace marks controversy, only 813 appeared for the exam. These candidates were given grace marks by the NTA to make up for the time lost at six centres due to the delay in the start of the exam on May 5. It was alleged that this had led to an increase in their marks, which happened at six centres. Candidates with grace marks from a single centre in Haryana scored a full 720 marks. Meanwhile, 67 students got full marks in the NEET-UG exam.
The CBI has registered an FIR in the NEET-UG case under sections 20-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating). The Bihar and Gujarat governments also issued a notification on Sunday to transfer the NEET-UG paper leak cases registered by their police to the CBI. Patna police arrested five people detained from Deoghar in Jharkhand on Sunday evening. All the accused are residents of Nalanda. They are – Baldev Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Pinku Kumar, Rajiv Kumar and Paramjit Singh.
Baldev Kumar, associated with the notorious Sanjiv Kumar alias Lutan Mukhiya gang, allegedly got the solved answer sheet of the NEET-UG exam in PDF format on his mobile phone a day before the examination, the statement said.
The police statement claimed that the leaked answer sheet was done by members of the Mukhya gang, accused of hatching several inter-state paper leak conspiracies.
Baldev and his colleagues printed the answer sheets for the students who had gathered at a safe house in Patna’s Ramakrishna Nagar on May 4. Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand, who were arrested earlier, brought the students to the safe house.
The police statement said that the NEET-UG question paper was obtained by the gang from a private school in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. Investigators have recovered a partially burnt question paper from a safe house in Patna. They have matched the paper with the reference question paper provided by the National Testing Agency (NTA), confirming the paper leak.
The National Testing Agency had debarred 63 students from Bihar for using unfair means in the NEET exam. On Saturday, it debarred 30 students from Godhra in Gujarat. Subsequently, 17 more candidates were debarred, taking the total number of candidates against whom action has been taken to 110. “Based on the information received, 17 candidates who appeared for the exam from centres in Bihar have been debarred from the exam. This takes the total number of candidates debarred from the exam this year to 110,” the NTA said.
The education ministry has asked the CBI to conduct a comprehensive probe into the entire range of alleged irregularities, including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust and destruction of evidence by candidates, institutions and middlemen. They will also investigate the possible role of public servants.
Meanwhile, the high-level panel of the Central government, headed by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan, will meet on Monday to give suggestions on exam reforms and review the functioning of the National Testing Agency.
On the NEET-UG issue, Professor TG Sitharam, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education, says, “The whole issue has caused a lot of pain to the students. The Government of India is well aware of the difficulties faced by the students, and strict measures are being taken in view of this. We want to conduct this exam with the highest level of transparency and integrity. The NTA chief has been changed to assure the students, the re-examination will be conducted soon.
The professor expressed grief and said that what has happened should not make you lose hope and have faith in the system. A committee has been formed to look into the structure and processes of NTA… I appeal to students to have faith in the system. A team has been appointed to look into the issue… CBI has registered both NEET (UG) and UGC-NET exams… AICTE and UGC will hold hands with NTA and help them conduct exams across the country.”
(Inputs-PTI, ANI)
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