NEET-UG leak: How half-burnt paper led CBI to 144 students, school ‘conspiracy’

A total of 144 candidates paid to get the answers to the leaked NEET-UG question papers hours before they were about to take the examination for medical college admissions, the CBI has said.

In its third charge sheet filed last week, the CBI named Pankaj Kumar, who allegedly stole the papers from Oasis School in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, in collusion with principal Ahsanul Haque and vice-principal Md Imtiyaz Alam, news agency PTI reported.

The 5,500-odd-page charge sheet carries the findings based on 290 documents, 45 material objects, and the statements of 298 witnesses. It gives a detailed modus operandi of the gang that had leaked the paper.

How crime was committed

The crime was allegedly committed once the trunks carrying the papers reached the school from the bank vault after 8 am on May 5, the day of the examination, the report said, quoting unnamed officials in the know.

Haque was the city coordinator for Hazaribagh, while Alam was designated the centre superintendent by the National Testing Agency for conducting the NEET UG-2024 examination.

Haque and Alam allegedly allowed Kumar, a civil engineer of the 2017 batch of the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, to enter the room where the trunks were kept.

How trunk was opened

Once inside, Kumar allegedly tampered with the hinges of the trunk containing the question papers, removed one and photographed all its pages. He then put it back into the trunk and resealed it before exiting the control room, the CBI alleged.

“Pankaj used a sophisticated tool kit to open and seal the trunk. This tool kit was seized by CBI from the residence of Pankaj Kumar. After leaving the school premises, he handed over the photos of the question paper to his accomplice, Surendra Kumar Sharma, who was at Raj Guest House, Hazaribagh,” the CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

Nine who solved papers

Nine medical students — Karan Jain, Kumar Shanu, Rahul Anand, Chandan Singh, Surbhi Kumari, Deependra Sharma, Raunak Raj, Sandeep Kumar, and Amit Kumar — solved these question papers at the Hazaribagh guest house.

These solved papers were allegedly scanned and electronically sent to different locations where gangs received them, printed them, and handed them to the aspirants who had paid huge amounts to get access to the leaked and solved papers hours before the examination was set to begin.

“Only those candidates who paid money in advance were allowed to enter these locations. The candidates were subsequently allowed to leave for their examination centres after 12:15 pm, but were prohibited from carrying the printed copies with them,” the spokesperson said.

A vital clue

The gang members later burnt the solved question papers once the candidates left the clandestine locations. The candidates were frisked before leaving and had not been allowed to carry their mobile phones to these locations, the CBI has alleged.

However, one piece of a half-burnt paper was recovered in one such hostel in Patna where these aspirants were staying. The serial number led the agency to Oasis School, which uncovered the entire conspiracy.

The 144 who benefitted

“The CBI has also identified 144 candidates present in these locations who were beneficiaries of this paper leak and necessary legal action is being initiated against them; 21 mobile phones used by the main accused in this case have also been recovered from various water bodies with the help of the divers by the CBI,” the agency said.

The central probe agency has arrested 49 accused, including the key conspirators and the solvers, and 40 of them have been charge-sheeted in three reports submitted by the agency so far.

(With agency inputs)