NEET 2024 paper leak case: More than 10 MBBS students from Bihar, Jharkhand GMCs under scanner

Patna: In a recent update in the ongoing investigation on the allegations of paper leak in the National Eligibility-and-Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2024, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Policeis scrutinizing the involvement of more than 10 MBBS students from the government medical colleges based in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The officials involved in the inquiry announced on Sunday that the students were found to have connections with an interstate 'solver gang' and are believed to have benefited from the racket responsible for leaking the question paper for the NEET 2024 examination.

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As per the latest TNIE news report, the identities and involvement of the ten medical students were brought to light after the 'solver gang' admitted to it during the interrogation by the investigation team. Following this, the team made a list and conducted raids in Ranchi and Hazaribagh in search of the students, but they managed to evade arrest.

The controversies surrounding the solver gang's involvement in the NEET UG 2024 who leaked exam papers and also provided proxy candidates has sparked a nationwide outrage with aspirants demanding justice in this matter.

So far, Six middlemen, four students and three parents – a total of 13 people – have been arrested in connection with the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak case.

During the investigation, the team found the mastermind behind the case identified as Sanjeev Singh, who also goes by Sanjeev ‘Mukhiya’. He is a resident of the Nalanda district and initially worked for an education mafia Ranjeet Don of Nalanda. Mukhiya’s son Shiv is learnt to have done his MBBS from Patna Medical College and Hospital and is now lodged in Beur central jail.

Shiv is an accused in the leak of question paper of teachers’ recruitment through Bihar Public Service Commission. Meanwhile, EOU has stumbled upon evidence on NEET-UG paper leak, officials further informed TNIE.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that four arrested men confessed that the question paper for the MBBS entrance test had leaked the previous night. These four accused include NEET aspirant Yadav, his uncle Sikandar, who is a Junior Engineer at Danapur Municipal Council, and two others- Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand. They confessed that they received the question paper for the NEET examination on the day before the exam date i.e. May 5, 2024.

As per these accused, they were made to memorize the paper. In their statement to the Bihar police officials, these four accused stated that the exact questions were asked in the exam the next day.

Meanwhile, responding to the demands of various medical aspirants who called out the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET exam and demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter, the Ministry of Education entrusted the matter of alleged irregularities in NEET (UG) Examination 2024 to CBI for the comprehensive investigation.

This year's National Eligibility-and-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 Examination was mired in controversies after the allegations of paper leak came into light. Around 13 people, including four examinees and their family members, were arrested in Bihar for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. Patna police sources had previously claimed that the NEET-UG question papers along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024.

Then, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, which took over the investigation, revealed that the brokers involved in the NEET paper leak scam took between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh from each of the medical aspirants in exchange for giving them the question paper of the NEET UG 2024 question paper ahead of the examination.

Multiple pleas have been filed before the High Courts and the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the alleged paper leak scam. Some of the pleas demanded the scrapping of the NEET UG 2024 exam and holding a retest.

Meanwhile, NEET aspirants across the country have been protesting against the alleged paper leak issue in NEET UG 2024 and the National Testing Agency's policy of awarding grace marks to 1563 candidates. While finally the NTA decided to scrap the grace marks, the issue of alleged paper leak is still unsolved.

Although earlier, the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had denied such allegations of paper leak, recently he assured action against NTA officials if they were found guilty of the "irregularities" in the conduct of the MBBS entrance exam.

The NEET 2024 issue has now taken a political turn as opposition parties are accusing the government over the allegations of rigging, paper leaks, and corruption. Recently Congress leader Rahul Gandhi argued that the BJP-ruled states were the "epicentre of paper leak".

While hearing pleas concerning the NEET examination, the apex court had on June 18 said that even if there was "0.001 per cent negligence" on the part of anyone in the conduct of the examination, it should be thoroughly dealt with.

The Apex Court had also sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on a plea for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities in the exam.

Also read- NEET 2024 Paper Was Leaked! 4 Accused Confess To Bihar Police