According to an Indian Express article, the Bihar government has notified the Center that their investigation suggests there may have been a paper leak in the NEET-UG 2024 test.
The official version of the exam supplied by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and 68 questions retrieved from a burned copy of the test were compared by Bihar's Economic Offenses Unit (EOU).
According to a report obtained by the Ministry of Education on Saturday from the EOU, the Oasis School is the owner of the exam center code that was found among burned paper remnants that the Bihar police had found at the house of detained applicants.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has approved this private school in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, which is associated with the CBSE, as an exam center. To verify the authenticity of the burned remnants and compare them with the original exam paper and its contents, the EOU worked with a forensics lab.
With the five people the EOU detained on Sunday, there have already been eighteen arrests in connection with the paper leak case.
The serial numbers of the 68 questions that were identical between the original paper and the charred fragments also matched identically, according to the Bihar police.
“On May 5, the exam day, burned exam papers were found, and probable applicants were apprehended at the same time. The initial unwillingness of the NTA to share information, including the question paper, with the state government was the reason given by the report's stated sources for the delay in the EOU's probe into matching these papers with the NEET-UG test.
In an effort to identify the source of the leak, the EOU is following the paper's journey from the NTA to Oasis School.
According to the report, one envelope had been opened from a different side when the EOU arrived at the Oasis School in Hazaribagh to gather all the envelopes and boxes containing question papers. Exam professionals are required to follow the standard method of ripping or cutting from a certain marked area to open tamper-proof envelopes carrying question papers. In this case, though, one packet had been opened improperly.
Examine claims of document leaks.
Oasis School Principal Ehsanhul Haque stated that it's possible that the exam papers were leaked before the students even got to the school. The CCTV footage showed the Center Superintendent and the NTA-appointed Observer receiving the exam packets from one of the designated banks on the morning of May 5, the day of the test, according to Haque, who is in charge of overseeing exam administration across four centers in Hazaribagh, including Oasis School.
Haque remarked on the charred remnants that depicted the Oasis school as an exam center, stating that administrators would have been detained if the school had done any infraction.
A high-level committee that was established by the Center to provide recommendations about test modifications and evaluate the National Testing Agency's (NTA) operations is set to meet on Monday.
About 800 pupils forego the retest.
Out of 1,563, only 813 people took the NEET-UG test on Sunday. The NTA awarded these students extra marks to make up for the May 5 delays at six centers. There were worries about possible score inflation, especially when six students from one Haryana center received perfect scores of 720. In all, 67 students nationwide received flawless marks in the NEET-UG test.
