As the controversy surrounding the NEET exam persists, shocking revelations to the Bihar Economic Offences Unit (EOU) have exposed significant flaws in this year’s medical entrance examination. Suspects have confessed that candidates paid exorbitant amounts, over Rs 30 lakh, for leaked exam papers.
On Saturday, the EOU issued notices to nine candidates, summoning them to their Patna office with evidence for questioning regarding their links to the ‘solver gang’. All the candidates, hailing from various districts in Bihar, are expected to appear on Monday and Tuesday. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has yet to comment on these recent developments.
“Every aspect is being looked into. Accountability will be fixed and depending on the nature of the lapse, action will be taken. There is no scope for any malpractice or irregularities in the conduct of any exam. We will not tolerate that. The accountability of NTA will also be fixed if lapses are found,” Pradhan stated.
In its investigation into the ‘solver gang’, the EOU identified the roll numbers of 13 candidates, with four already arrested. The EOU then requested information on the remaining nine candidates from the NTA, along with a reference question paper.
EOU Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Manavjit Singh Dhillon reported that the NTA had provided the candidates’ admit cards, enabling the agency to obtain their contact details and issue notices. The students will also be questioned about whether they were required to memorize questions by the solver gang before the exam.
The EOU has arrested 14 individuals following the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged malpractices. India Today has obtained exclusive access to the confessions of the arrested individuals, revealing the exchange of money for question papers. The statements indicated that medical aspirants paid over Rs 30 lakh each to ‘brokers’ for the leaked papers.
During his interrogation, a 56-year-old junior engineer with the Bihar government, Sikandar Kumar Yadavendu, admitted his involvement. In his confessional statement to the district police, Sikandar acknowledged meeting Nitish and Amit Anand, who operated an educational consultancy firm, at his government office in Patna. They agreed to collaborate in the scheme.
Sikandar confessed that he was in contact with the families of several NEET aspirants, negotiating financial terms. He claimed that Amit and Nitish obtained the question paper on May 4 and gathered the candidates in a safe house in the Ramkrishna Nagar area of Patna. He was later arrested along with Akhilesh and Bittu during a routine police check, which revealed several NEET admit cards.
Both Amit and Nitish admitted their involvement in the question paper leak in their respective confessional statements to the police. They confessed to charging between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 32 lakh per candidate.
Preliminary investigations suggest that one of the arrested individuals, Nitish Kumar, who was previously jailed in the Bihar Public Service Commission Teacher Recruitment Examination (BPSC TRE) case, may be a key figure. The EOU suspects that the same group, led by Sanjeev Singh in Bihar’s Nalanda, was involved again.
The group approached students through dubious educational consultancies and coaching centers. One of the arrested, Amit Anand, ran an unregistered educational consultancy in Patna.
The modus operandi involved breaching the chain of custody from a printing firm to the examination center by compromising the staff. After obtaining the questions, the nexus assembled students in safe houses to memorize the answers. They then escorted the candidates to exam centers to prevent information leakage.
According to highly-placed EOU sources, the SIT had been monitoring the case from the start but only decided to form the team after making 13 critical arrests, including a junior engineer with the state government and an individual accused in the BPSC TRE 3.0 question paper leak case.