The Bihar Police on Saturday detained six individuals from Jharkhand’s Deoghar district in connection with alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET.
According to an official, they were detained from a house near AIIMS-Deoghar in the Devipur police station area on Friday night.
The suspects were identified as Paramjit Singh alias Bittu, Chintu alias Baldev Kumar, Kaju alias Prashant Kumar, Ajit Kumar, Rajiv Kumar alias Karu, all residents of Nalanda district in Bihar, and Panku Kumar.
SDPO (Deoghar Sadar) Ritvik Srivastava informed news agency PTI that the suspects were allegedly residing at the house of one Jhunu Singh.
“The Bihar Police gave us a tip-off. On our identification, they were taken into custody. All the suspects have been taken to Bihar,” Srivastava stated.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), conducted by the NTA on May 5, saw around 24 lakh candidates participating. The results were announced on June 4, nearly 10 days ahead of schedule, coinciding with the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Concerns have been raised regarding the unusually high percentiles achieved by some students, with scores of 718 or 719 out of 720, which many claim to be impossible. Aspirants have voiced concerns over alleged irregularities and paper leaks.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), conducted by the NTA on May 5, saw around 24 lakh candidates participating. The results were announced on June 4, nearly 10 days ahead of schedule, coinciding with the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Concerns have been raised regarding the unusually high scores achieved by some students, with marks of 718 or 719 out of 720, which many claim to be impossible. Aspirants have voiced concerns over alleged irregularities and paper leaks.
NEET Retest For 1,563 candidates On June 23
The NEET-UG retest for 1,563 candidates will be held on Sunday, June 23, with National Testing Agency (NTA) and Union education ministry officials present at the examination centers, officials said on Friday.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), under scrutiny for lapses in the conduct of NEET and UGC-NET, is preparing to conduct a retest for the medical entrance exam. This retest is for candidates who were earlier awarded grace marks to compensate for the loss of time at six centers in Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Chandigarh.
According to NTA officials, the re-exam will be conducted at seven centers.
A total of 67 students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA’s history. Notably, six of these students were from a center in Faridabad, Haryana, raising suspicions about irregularities. It has been alleged that grace marks contributed to these 67 students sharing the top rank.
Anti-paper Leak Law Amid NEET, UGC-NET Row
On Friday, the central government notified the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, which aims to prevent unfair practices in public examinations and common entrance tests held across the country.
The Act targets the prevention of paper leaks and malpractices in recruitment examinations like UPSC and SSC, as well as entrance tests such as NEET, JEE, and CUET.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 (1 of 2024), the Central Government hereby appoints the 21st day of June, 2024 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force,” read the official notification released by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
As per the Act, any person found guilty of leaking a paper or tampering with answer sheets faces a minimum jail term of three years, extendable to five years, with a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.
UGC-NET June 2024 Cancelled
This move comes amid a controversy over the UGC-NET 2024 exam’s question paper leak. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education announced the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination due to “prima facie evidence indicating a compromise in the exam’s integrity”.
The UGC-NET June 2024 examination, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), took place on June 18 across various cities nationwide in two shifts. Subsequently, on Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case to probe the question paper leak of the exam conducted by the NTA.
(With inputs from PTI)
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