NEET cancelled: Bihar police report alleges paper leak for Rs 32 lakh; education minister denies

NEW DELHI: After the Supreme Court directed the NTA to cancel the NEET results 2024 for 1,563 candidates who were compensated with grace marks, Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi shared the Bihar Police report on the NEET paper leak and condemned the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s recent statement defending the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The Bihar police claimed that NTA was made aware of the NEET UG paper leak 2024 in May and that they have arrested 13 people in connection with the case. As per the interrogation report, the accused admitted that the NEET question paper 2024 was leaked a day before and they made the children memorize it. The accused also said that the question paper was leaked 24 hours before to those who paid an amount of Rs 30-32 lakh.

This year, an unprecedented number of 67 candidates topped the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Undergraduate (NEET UG 2024), raising suspicion on irregularities. Out of the total number of NEET rank 1 holders, a total of 50 were given grace marks. Of which, 44 received grace marks for a dropped question in physics and six candidates for the loss of time during the exam.

Also read ‘No NEET paper leak or corruption’: Dharmendra Pradhan says NTA will follow SC order on re-exam

The confession report also stated how the NEET solver gang used to leak the paper for money and names of candidates who were benefitted from the unfair means. Notably, a video of a masked man claiming that the NEET UG 2024 paper leak went viral on social media. However, the NTA denied the allegations and called the claims ‘baseless’.

NEET Supreme Court judgment

Earlier today, the Supreme Court directed the NTA to withdraw the results of the affected candidates and conduct re-exam for them. The vacation bench was hearing three petitions against the arbitrary awarding of grace marks, paper leak and other irregularities. Following this, the NTA informed the top court that the NEET re-test will be held on June 23, as per the recommendation made by the expert committee.

Dharmendra Pradhan who was assuming charge as the Union education minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government rubbished the NEET paper leak claims and said that there was no paper leak or corruption. Tagging Pradhan, Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi posted on X: “What is shameful is that the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan finds it absolutely okay to defend NTA and rubbish the paper leak, however investigation shows otherwise. The minister is basically dismissing the Bihar Police investigation, is CM Bihar Nitish Kumar ji okay with this?”