The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested the principal and vice principal of a school in Hazirabagh of Jharkhand in connection with the alleged NEET-UG exam paper leak, officials aware of the matter said.
According to the officials, Ehsanul Haque, the principal of Oasis School, and Imtiaz Alam, the institute’s vice principal, were arrested over their suspected role in the alleged paper leak.
“The federal probe agency arrested Haque and Alam after detailed questioning,” an official familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. Officials said that the CBI also arrested a third person in the case but their identity was yet to be disclosed. They added that the probe agency was also questioning five more people from the district in connection with the case.
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Haque was the Hazaribagh district coordinator for the medical entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5. Alam was an NTA observer and centre coordinator at the Oasis School for the medical exam that has been embroiled in a raging controversy.
The two came under the scanner after a half-burnt question paper of NEET- UG, 2024 was recovered from a private school located in Ramakrishna Nagar of Patnaon May 5, hours after the exam ended. On June 23, a three-member probe team of Bihar police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) visited the school and inquired about the conduct of the test and the mechanism to open digital locks of question paper boxes. A CBI team detained Haque after questioning on Wednesday.
{{/usCountry}}The two came under the scanner after a half-burnt question paper of NEET- UG, 2024 was recovered from a private school located in Ramakrishna Nagar of Patnaon May 5, hours after the exam ended. On June 23, a three-member probe team of Bihar police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) visited the school and inquired about the conduct of the test and the mechanism to open digital locks of question paper boxes. A CBI team detained Haque after questioning on Wednesday.
{{/usCountry}}Haque has denied any tempering of the question paper in Hazaribagh and termed the allegations baseless.
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.