NEET paper was leaked in Hazaribagh: CBI

New Delhi, July 25

The CBI on Thursday confirmed that the NEET-UG question paper was illicitly accessed from Oasis School in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh on the morning of May 5, the day the examination was conducted.

Trunk & tools: How it was leaked

• Minutes after trunk of question papers arrives, centre head allows mastermind access to it
• Sophisticated tools used to open the trunk and access the paper
• Paper then solved through a set of solvers, mostly MBBS students
• Paper, answers shared with select students in lieu of money

The agency, in a statement, said the paper was accessed by one Pankaj Kumar, alias Aditya, in connivance with school principal Ehsanul Haque, vice-principal Imtiaz Alam and another accused.

Pankaj, who has been arrested, is one of the masterminds in the case while the principal was the National Testing Agency’s Hazaribagh city coordinator. The vice-principal was the centre superintendent at Oasis School.

“The recovered pieces of half-burnt question papers led the CBI to the designated NEET examination centre from where the paper was leaked. The trunks containing question papers were brought to the school and kept in the control room on the morning of May 5. Minutes after the trunks arrived, the principal and the vice-principal unauthorisedly allowed the mastermind (Pankaj) access to the room. The sophisticated tools used to open the trunk and access the paper have been seized,” the agency said.

The CBI said after getting access to the paper, it was solved in Hazaribagh through a set of solvers. The solved paper was then shared with certain selected students who paid money to the accused.

The CBI arrested AIIMS-Patna students Chandan Singh, Rahul Anant, Kumar Shanu and Karan Jain earlier this month. The agency has confirmed their participation in the irregularities.

“All the solvers, who are MBBS students from reputed colleges, have been identified and most of them arrested. These solvers were specially brought to Hazaribagh as part of the conspiracy. Accused Pankaj perpetrated the crime along with a few other masterminds, who have been identified and many of them arrested.

“The group was actively assisted by a set of accused persons,” the CBI said.