CBI Arrests Principal and Vice Principal of Jharkhand School in NEET Paper Leak Scandal

The federal probe agency arrested Ehsanul Haque and Alam after detailed questioning, officials reported. Haque, the principal of Oasis School, was appointed as the city coordinator of Hazaribagh for the medical entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5, they added. Both Haque and Alam came under scrutiny during a probe by the Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) which was investigating the case earlier. The team discovered burnt question papers of NEET-UG during a raid at a hideout of the solver gang, officials said.

The EOU claimed that the “leaked” NEET-UG question paper was allegedly obtained from the Oasis School in Hazaribagh by the notorious Sanjeev Kumar alias Lutan Mukhiya gang. They also mentioned that a partially burnt question paper found from the Patna safe house was matched with the reference question paper provided by the NTA, confirming the leak’s origin. However, the officials stated that it could not clearly establish who was behind the alleged paper leak. The probe also revealed that guidelines for opening the question paper boxes were not properly followed by the authorities in Hazaribagh.

Haque, in media interviews, maintained that the box carrying the question papers could not be opened because its digital lock had malfunctioned. He claimed that he had contacted the NTA, which advised him to use a cutter to open the box. The boxes carrying question papers have two locks – a manual one and a digital lock that opens with a beep sound 45 minutes before the examination. The CBI has registered six FIRs in the NEET-UG paper leak case; this includes its own FIR based on a reference from the Union Education Ministry and five from the states where it took over investigation.

The probe agency has taken over one case each in Bihar and Gujarat and three cases in Rajasthan. On Thursday, CBI made its first arrests in the NEET-UG paper leak case, taking two people in custody in Patna while three candidates in Gujarat who had allegedly solicited help to clear the exam recorded their statements with the probe agency. NEET-UG is conducted by NTA for admissions to various medical courses in government and private institutions across the country. This year’s exam was conducted at numerous centers and over 23 lakh candidates appeared for the test.

A demand for a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam was raised by a section of protesting students.