Bihar police to tally NEET papers with seized documents, arrest 6 from Jharkhand

The Bihar police's Economic Offences Unit (EOU), which is probing the alleged NEET-UG paper leak case, on Saturday (June 22) claimed to have obtained reference question papers of the test conducted by NTA and planned to compare these with documents recovered from a flat in Patna during a search operation last month.

The EOU is also exploring the “possibility of conducting narco analysis and brain mapping tests” of a few accused arrested in the case, state police sources said.

They also indicated that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) might investigate the money laundering aspect of the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in May.

ED may probe matter

“We had requested the NTA for the reference question papers after we began the probe last month. Finally, they did the needful. We will tally these papers with partially burnt papers seized from a Patna flat last month. This exercise is likely to be done before a forensic examination of such documents,” an EOU source said.

Top officials of the EOU are likely to visit Delhi on Saturday to “discuss certain aspects pertaining to the ongoing probe with the senior officials of the Union Education Ministry and other concerned wings,” he said.

“Based on EOU’s FIR, the ED may probe the matter under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The central agency is expected to identify proceeds of crime and initiate proceedings to attach properties belonging to the accused or suspects,” said another source of the Economic Offences Unit.

Commenting on this, former Bihar DGP Abhayanand told PTI, “There is no doubt that grave offences have been committed in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. Prima facie, it appears that the paper was leaked…evidence collected so far is also suggestive of the paper leak. The case must be probed under the provisions of the PMLA as black money is involved in it.”

Conflicting statements

It is also learnt that certain accused in the case are “providing conflicting statements or changing their statements during interrogation”, the EOU sources said.

“Investigators are not satisfied with the statements of certain accused. Though they have been questioned several times, their replies are not convincing. Now officials are contemplating conducting brain mapping and narco-analysis tests. These scientific tests may provide certain fresh leads to investigators,” one of the EOU sources said.

The EOU had last month arrested 13 people as part of its investigation into the alleged paper leak in NEET-UG 2024 exam.

Six detained from Jharkhand

Meanwhile, the Bihar police detained six people from Jharkhand's Deoghar district in connection with the alleged irregularities in medical entrance exam NEET, an official said on Saturday.

They were detained from a house near AIIMS-Deoghar in Devipur police station area on Friday night, he said. “The Bihar Police gave us a tip-off. On our identification, they were taken into custody. All the suspects have been taken to Bihar,” SDPO (Deoghar Sadar) Ritvik Srivastava told PTI.

The suspects were allegedly living at the house of one Jhunu Singh, he said.

They were identified as Paramjit Singh alias Bittu, Chintu alias Baldev Kumar, Kaju alias Prashant Kumar, Ajit Kumar, Rajiv Kumar alias Karu, all residents of Nalanda district of Bihar, and Panku Kumar, according to a statement issued by the Deoghar police.

NEET-UG was conducted by the NTA on May 5 with around 24 lakh candidates taking part in it. The results were announced on June 4, but they were followed by allegations of question paper leaks in states such as Bihar, besides other irregularities.

CBI interrogates suspect

In another development, the CBI on Saturday questioned a man in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar in connection with the UGC-NET paper leak case, officials said.

The suspect, who allegedly posted a portion of the paper on instant messaging service Telegram, was taken to Padrauna Kotwali in the district where he is being questioned by the team of CBI anti-corruption branch, they said.

It is understood that the suspect had undertaken coaching for the examination in Kota, Rajasthan, they said.

The CBI had registered an FIR into the UGC-NET paper leak case on Thursday against unidentified people on a reference from the Union education ministry.

UGC-NET paper leak

The UGC-NET-2024 exam for the selection of junior research fellows, assistant professors and PhD scholars was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on June 18 in two shifts across the country.

The next day, the UGC received inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (l4C) that the paper was available on the darknet and allegedly being sold for Rs 5-6 lakh on messaging platforms, sources said.

According to the complaint from the education ministry, the inputs from I4C, which functions under the Union Home Ministry, “prima-facie indicate that the integrity of the examination may have been compromised”, officials said.

(With agency inputs)