CBI arrests engineer, his associate for stealing NEET question paper from Bihar's Hazaribagh
New Delhi/IBNS: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday arrested a man who stole NEET-UG paper from the trunk of the National Testing Agency in Bihar's Hazaribagh before they were allegedly leaked along with his associate, media reports said.
Pankaj Kumar, who stole the paper, was arrested from Patna while Raju Singh was caught in Jamshedpur.
Kumar aka Aaditya did his civil engineering from NIT Jamshedpur in 2017, media reports said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier zeroed in on Hazaribagh as the origin place of the NEET-UG paper leak. The paper was leaked by Oasis school in Hazari Bagh, the CBI probe said, adding, that two sets of papers which reached there had their seals broken and instead of flagging the issue the staff of the school remained tight-lipped.
"Nine sets of question papers were dispatched from SBI Hazaribagh to different centres. The ones that reached Oasis school centre had their seals broken. The staff there did not raise an alarm and thus, their role is established," a senior official disclosed.
"Based on technical evidence, they had made searches in Learn and Play School in Patna where some burnt papers were recovered," he explained adding that the case was later taken over by the Bihar Economic Offences Unit (EOU).
On June 21, the NTA disclosed that the code matched the papers found in Oasis school, he added.
Interestingly, the principal of the school, Dr Ehsanul Haque, was also the district coordinator for the NEET-UG exam in Hazaribagh while vice-principal Imtiaz Alam was the centre coordinator.
The CBI, probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered several First Information Reports (FIRs) and made nearly 60 arrests so far.
The NEET-UG exam - conducted by the National Testing Agency for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions - was held on May 5 this year.
The prestigious exam has been mired in controversy, with allegations of cheating and impersonation. The CBI FIR from Bihar pertains to paper leaks, while those registered in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, are linked to the impersonation of candidates and cheating.
This year, the exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the test
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