NEET case | Candidates from Bihar, UP but answers in Gujarati: CBI tells court

The CBI, which is investigating the NEET-UG paper leak case, has told a Gujarat court that candidates from Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were asked by the accused to choose Gujarati as the language for the entrance exam at a centre in Godhra.

According to a report in India Today, the move to ask other state students to choose Gujarati was to help Gujarati candidates fill their answer sheets, the Central Bureau of Investigation told the court and sought the custody of the accused.

The CBI’s probe into alleged malpractices at two exam centres in Gujarat has also revealed that the candidates outside of Gujarat were also allegedly asked to show their permanent address as Panchmahal or Vadodara, the report added.

So far, the CBI has taken five of the six accused into its custody. Dixit Patel, owner of Jai Jalaram School in Godhra, which was one of the exam centres, is also in the probe agency’s custody. Patel had allegedly demanded Rs 10 lakh from each student to clear the NEET-UG exam, according to the report.

The CBI has so far arrested 11 persons across states in the NEET-UG paper leak case. Eight people have been arrested in Bihar, one each in connection with alleged exam manipulation in Gujarat’s Latur and Godhra, and one from Dehradun in connection with general conspiracy, officials said.

The agency had earlier arrested the principal and vice principal of Jharkhand's Hazaribagh-based Oasis school in the case and two persons who allegedly provided safe premises to NEET candidates where burnt question papers were recovered by the Bihar Police.

The CBI, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered six FIRs.

The FIR from Bihar pertains to paper leaks while the remaining from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are linked to the impersonation of candidates and cheating.

The agency's own FIR on a reference from the Union Education Ministry pertains to a "comprehensive investigation" into the alleged irregularities in the examination.

NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions. This year, the exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the test.

Meanwhile, the Centre had on Wednesday told the Supreme Court there was neither any indication of "mass malpractice" nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores in NEET-UG 2024.

It said the data analytics of results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by IIT Madras and as per the findings given by the experts, the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality.

In an additional affidavit filed in the apex court, the Centre said for 2024-25, the counselling process for undergraduate seats will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July.

(With agency inputs)