Handed over NEET case to CBI: Bihar govt issues official notification

Patna: After the central government entrusted the CBI with the matter of alleged irregularities in the NEET 2024 for a comprehensive investigation, the Bihar government has issued an official notification regarding handing over the NEET UG paper leak case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

According to the ANI report, in the notification, the government said, "In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 6 of the Delhi Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Act 25 of 1946), the Governor of Bihar is pleased to give his assent to the Delhi Special Police Establishment, who have been entrusted with the exercise of powers and jurisdiction in the state and other places related to the case to investigate/supervise and investigate the FIR No. 5117081240358, dated 05.05.2024, registered at the Shashtri Nagar Police Station in Patna under sections 407, 408, 409, 120 of the IPC, which relate to irregularities in the NEET (UG) 2024 examination held on May 5, 2024."

Notably, the Bihar government had handed over the investigation of alleged irregularities in the 2024 NEET-UG exam to the CBI for a thorough probe.

After taking over the probe into the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-UG exams in 2024, the CBI formed special teams to investigate the case, the central agency said in a statement on Sunday.

This comes after the central government entrusted the CBI with the matter of alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam in 2024 for a comprehensive investigation.

"National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the NEET (UG) Examination on May 5, 2024, in OMR (pen and paper) mode. Certain cases of alleged irregularities, cheating, impersonation, and malpractices have been reported. For transparency on the conduct of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, after a review, has decided to entrust the matter to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation," the government said.

The Central Government has also enacted the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, to prevent unfair means in public examinations and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto," it said.

"The government is committed to ensuring the sanctity of examinations and protecting the interests of students. It is reiterated that any individual or organisation found to be involved will face strictest action," it added.

The NTA, which conducted the NEET-UG exams, is facing criticism over alleged irregularities in the exams.

This resulted in several protests across the country, with protestors and political parties demanding to disband the NTA.

An unprecedented 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720 out of 720, which added to the concerns.

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