In burnt scraps, Bihar Police found 68 questions matching ‘original’ NEET UG paper

It was based on the EOU report that the Education Ministry Saturday decided to handover the investigation in the matter to CBI. The EOU arrested five more suspects on Sunday, taking the total number of those apprehended in connection with the paper leak case to 18.

What reinforces Bihar’s claim of a paper leak is the fact that, apart from the 68 questions being exactly the same as the original, the serial numbers of these questions on the burnt scraps and the original paper are also identical.

Accused in the NEET-UG case in Patna on Sunday. (PTI)

Although the burnt papers were found on May 5 – the exam date — itself when the suspected candidates were arrested, the delay at the EOU’s end in matching them with the NEET-UG paper was, sources said, due to the NTA’s initial reluctance to share information, especially the question paper, with the state government.

However, it finally relented and started sharing information with Bihar’s EOU a week ago.

At present, the Bihar EOU is trying to identify the time and place of the paper leak. The NTA has recently shared the chain of custody of the question paper, with the help of which the EOU is retracing the paper’s journey from NTA’s custody to the Oasis school to identify the leak.

For starters, its seizures from the Oasis School in Hazaribagh two days ago provide a vital clue. Sources said that when the team visited the school and picked up all the envelopes and boxes in which the question papers had arrived, it was noticed that one envelope had been cut open at a different end. All tamper-proof envelopes carrying question papers are always opened by tearing or cutting from a designated highlighted area, which all exam staff are trained to do. But one envelope, in particular, was opened at the wrong end.

When contacted, Ehsanhul Haque, the principal of Oasis School, said that paper may have been leaked “much before” the packets reached the school. Haque, the district co-ordinator for conducting exams in four centres in Hazaribagh, including Oasis School, told The Indian Express that the CCTV footage clearly showed that the school’s Centre Superintendent and the Observer designated by the NTA, received the packet on the morning of May 5 (test day) from the one of the two designated banks.

Students arrive at a school in Haryana’s Jhajjar for the NEET-UG retest on Sunday. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

Haque said: “As soon as the packet reached the school, multiple people, including invigilators got involved. The packet with the paper was then opened in front of the students.”

When asked about the burnt scraps showing Oasis as the exam centre, Haque said: “Even though the question papers are sealed in a seven-layered packet, the EOU officer said that the packet seemed to have been opened in a very sophisticated manner.” He said that if there was any wrongdoing on the school’s part, the school’s officials would have been taken into custody.

The EOU has sent the digital devices and phones of the people who have been arrested to a forensics laboratory to retrieve clues as the accused had formatted their devices recently.

All the accused have testified before the police that four examinees, who are among those arrested, had memorised answers from the leaked question paper a day before the NEET-UG exam on May 5, while residing at a location in Rajbanshi Nagar.

The four eventually got 581, 483, 300 and 185 marks out of 720. While only four candidates have been arrested, the EOU, based on statements of the accused, believes another 30 candidates could have benefitted from the leak and were with the four candidates at the house in Rajbanshi Nagar a night before the exam.

The Jharkhand Police were the first to alert the Bihar Police about a potential NEET-UG paper leak on May 4. The Patna police quickly responded but initially struggled to pinpoint the suspects’ locations.

The following day, the exam took place at 27 centers in Bihar. By the afternoon of May 5, the Shastri Nagar police station received specific leads indicating that some suspects were gathered at a house in Rajbanshi Nagar. Three teams were mobilized: one raided the house and found a burnt question paper; another visited a local exam centre and arrested an examinee and his father; and the third searched for a key suspect, Yadavendu, the junior engineer.

Following Yadavendu’s questioning, the police arrested three more examinees and four ‘setters,’ including Nitish and Amit. The statements of all 13 accused were recorded by sub-inspector Tej Narayan Singh on May 5 itself.

The arrests were made public on May 7, by which time all 13 suspects had been placed in judicial custody under charges of criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. Initially, the Patna police did not label it a paper leak, despite the statements suggesting otherwise. As pressure increased, the Bihar government transferred the investigation to the EOU, an independent agency, on May 11. (with Abhishek Angad, Ranchi)