‘SOURCE OF NEET LEAK LIKELY COURIER, TRANSPORT FIRM STAFF’

The NEET-UG question paper for the May 5 entrance test may have been leaked on May 3 while being transported from the Ranchi airport to an office of courier company Blue Dart, and then to the Hazaribagh branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) with the help of employees of either the transport company or the courier agency, officials aware of the matter said.

Also Read: CBI makes its first arrests in NEET-UG case, arrests 2 from Patna

Bihar police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU), which arrested 18 people and recorded the statements of SBI and Blue Dart employees, handed its case files to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which took over the case.

Police officials, who asked not to be named, said that those arrested – including members of a gang in Nalanda – have, in the past bribed employees of courier companies, drivers involved in transportation and photographed question papers en route to different exam centres.

Bihar police have also shared with CBI details of their investigation that show how the 2024 NEET-UG question paper was driven first by a transport company driver for over a 100km route and then by an e-rickshaw to the bank for a distance of less than 2km.

“Police have shared statements of the Blue Dart company employees and bank officials with CBI which will question them soon,” one officer said.

Also Read: Opposition to bring adjournment motions on NEET in both houses of parliament

HT sought a response on Thursday from Blue Dart on the findings by the police, but did not receive a response till the time of going to print. HT also reached out to SBI’s corporate communications via email and phone, but did not receive a response till the time of going to print.

The 2024 NEET-UG, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to MBBS, BDS and other related undergraduate courses across India, has been beset with a series of allegations ranging from question paper leaks, inflated marking and arbitrary allowance of grace marks – issues that have become a nationwide flashpoint for political parties, leading to thousands of students protesting for weeks. This year’s examination was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad with 2.3 million candidates appearing for it.

After a month of investigations in states like Bihar and Gujarat, the first FIR by CBI in the paper leak case was registered on Sunday, a day after the Union education ministry announced it would hand over the probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam to the central agency.

A second officer said that their investigations revealed that the question papers were brought to the Ranchi airport by flight on May 3. The Hazaribagh (Jharkhand) Blue Dart office hired a transport company to ferry the papers to different exam centres around Hazaribagh, the officials said.

“The driver, who collected the papers from Ranchi airport, transports packages for different courier agencies in Hazaribagh. He collected the NEET-UG paper and dropped it at the Blue Dart office by around noon instead of at the SBI branch. Now if he is part of the same gang and stopped the vehicle en route is a matter that needs investigation. Around 2pm, he dropped the question papers outside the Blue Dart office instead of taking it to the SBI branch, which is less than 2km from there. Blue Dart employees said he refused to take it to the SBI brand saying that it was meant for the courier company,” said the second officer.

Among the question papers in the packet was booklet number 6136488. Last month, the NEET leak case was busted after Bihar police officials recovered a burnt photocopy of this booklet from outside the Learn Play School and Hostel in Patna. It is at this school that over two dozen students were shown the question papers on May 4 – a day before the examination – by members of the Sanjeev Kumar (aka Luthan Mukhia) gang. Kumar is absconding, while his aides have been arrested by Bihar police.

Detailing how the NEET-UG question paper bundles were further transported to the bank branch without any security or supervision, the first officer said: “Blue Dart employees stopped an e-rickshaw driver and asked him to drop the question papers at the bank. Now, it is also a matter of probe, if anyone stopped the e-rickshaw and tampered with the package. But this was a ride of 2km. Blue Dart employees said they randomly stopped an e-rickshaw and sent it to the SBI branch. This is how such a confidential paper was handled.”

Between the evening of May 3 and the morning of May 5, the papers including booked number 6136488 were inside the Hazaribagh SBI office. While the role of the SBI bank employees is also under probe, officials believe the chances of their involvement are low.

The Bihar police, in a meeting with CBI officials on Tuesday, shared details of all the 18 arrested people and also Luthan Mukia. His son, Shiv Kumar is in jail in the leak of the March 2024 Bihar Teacher Recruitment Exam (TRE 3) case.

Sharing details of the TRE case, the first officer said, “In that case, Kumar’s son, Shiv Kumar and his aides bribed transporters hired by a Patna-based company to transport the papers. The company had further given the contract of transporting the TRE 3 question papers to Zenith Logistics Pvt Ltd. On March 12, the transport company’s driver stopped his vehicle at an eatery called Buddha Family Restaurant at Pushpa Nagar in Nalanda and tampered with the question papers. They hired restaurants, hotel and banquet halls along the way to tamper with the courier packages.”

The officer said that in 2023, the same gang, bribed people from one branch of DP World transport company to leak the paper of the Bihar police constable examination.

“There is a clear link here,” the first officer said, adding that the gang and its Uttar Pradesh-based associates similarly tapped employees of a transport company to leak the UP police recruitment paper too.

“During our probe we found one of the arrested men in the NEET-UG 2024 case, who is an aide of kingpin Sanjeev Kumar, was in touch with jailed members of Uttar Pradesh-based Ravi Attri gang. Ravi was arrested by the UP STF in March 2024 in connection with the UP police paper leak case. In that case, Ravi and his aide Shubham Mandal bribed three employees of a transport company to tamper with the question papers. The modus operandi is the same. Now this Mandal, who was arrested by UP police, is an aide of Sanjeev Kumar’s son Shiv. They were arrested by Patna police in 2017 for attempting to bribe transporters,” the officer added.

Bihar Police officers said that the cover of the question papers containing booklet number 6136488, meant for the Oasis school in Hazaribagh, has been handed to the CBI. “As per protocol, the exam centres must keep covers of such booklets for at least a month. The cover in which the booklet was wrapped was tampered on one of its sides. It has been seized and given to CBI. The tampering was not noticed by school authorities, invigilators, NTA representatives. These gangs know how to tamper using a set of tools and then place the paper back,” the first officer added.

CBI is questioning Oasis School principal Dr Ehsan Ul-Haq for his alleged role in the case. Bihar Police officials said Haq and his team received the question paper from the bank branch at around 7.30am on the day of the examination.

“From the bank to the school, the paper was transported in the school’s vehicle, but it was guarded by different officials and not just Haq’s colleagues. Either they all are involved or they did not know that the question papers they received were already tampered with,” the second official added.

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com

2024-06-27T22:55:30Z dg43tfdfdgfd