New Delhi Investigating agencies are close to identifying the source of the leak of the UGC-NET 2024 question paper, which was being sold on the darknet and messaging app Telegram a day before the June 18 exam -- leading to its cancellation and impacting over 900,000 candidates -- people familiar with the development said.
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is coordinating with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to scan the details of habitual suspects known for paper leaks since the federal agency has investigated similar cases in the past, the people added.
In June 2023, CBI investigated an alleged leak of a question paper for the nursing officer recruitment examination of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. It has also probed the leak of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) paper in 2018.
A senior official looking into the matter, who asked not to be name, said: “The concerned government department conducting examinations (in the case of NET, the National Testing Agency) often outsources the printing work of the exam papers, and it is often seen that printing agencies or coaching centres are able to obtain a copy of the question paper. A dedicated team is looking into it. We have some leads and are very close to identifying the source [of the leak]”.
It was I4C which first noticed the exam paper on the darknet, and reported it to the ministries of home affairs and education.
{{/usCountry}}It was I4C which first noticed the exam paper on the darknet, and reported it to the ministries of home affairs and education.
{{/usCountry}}“Based on information from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analysis Unit of I4C, prime facie it was found that there were question papers in the darknet. Papers were also circulated on Telegram,” Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said at a press conference on Thursday.
CBI sleuths suspect that the question paper was available on the darknet and Telegram since June 16, and said it was being sold for a few thousand rupees. However, the chain of how it went from NTA to the perpetrators and then to the clandestine public domain will be thoroughly investigated by CBI before reaching any conclusion, officers said.
For now, the CBI has booked “unknown persons” in its first information report (FIR) filed on Thursday.
“It has been alleged in the complaint that on June 19, UGC received inputs from National Cyber Crime Threat Analysis Unit of Indian Cyber Crime Co-ordination Centre (I4C) under Union ministry of home affairs that integrity of UGC Net -2024 examination, conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) in two shifts across different cities in the country, may have been compromised,” a CBI spokesperson said on Thursday.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) National Eligibility Test (NET) is conducted by NTA twice a year to screen PhD candidates, pick assistant professors and award Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).
The June edition of the exam was held on Tuesday, a day before the exam was cancelled, with 908, 580 candidates appearing at 1,200 centres.
The the education ministry’s decision to cancel the exam added fire to a swirling controversy around skewed results and allegations of paper leaks that have vitiated the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year, and sparked serious questions about the processes followed by NTA.