NEET-UG row: Here’s how the Bihar Police almost cracked the question paper leak case

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG), a national-level exam for admission to medical programmes conducted by the National Testing Agency on May 5 this year, is under a cloud of suspicion following alleged malpractices. Now, the Bihar Police has collected vital evidence in the case, which could lead to further arrests and unearth the racket behind the scam linked to the NEET-UG exams, which attracted 24 lakh aspirants.

Additional Director General of Economic Offences Unit (EOU), NH Khan informed Hindustan Times that the matter was with the CBI now and all evidence collected by the Bihar Police would be handed over. He said, “We also have to submit our report to the Supreme Court and that we will do in a sealed envelope with the up-to-date status of our investigation and evidence gathered thus far,” HT reported.

Here's what happened

A phone call from their Jharkhand counterparts alerted the Patna division of the Bihar Police. The cops were informed about a suspicious car roaming the city, possibly with links to suspected elements trying to influence the outcome of the NEET-UG examination process.

Deputy Inspector General and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Patna, Rajeev Mishra, informed Station House Officers across the city to track down the vehicle. Eventually, the police seized the car, and arrested three men holding four different admit cards of NEET aspirants, the PAN card of another applicant, and passport size photographs. The police caught hold of a junior engineer employed with the Danapur Nagar Parishad, Sikandar Prasad Yadavendu, his driver, Bittu Kumar, and the father of NEET aspirant Ayush Raj, Akhilesh Kumar.

Following the investigation, the alleged irregularities and paper leak suspicions were confirmed. The origin of the leak was traced to a Jharkhand school.

The probe led to two other suspects— the son of the vice-president of the Janata Dal (United)’s Khagaria unit and IT engineer from Bengaluru, Amit Anand and a contractor based out of Bihar, Nitish Kumar.

It was found that the duo demanded ₹30-32 lakh per candidate for leaking the exam papers. Police officer said, “Yadavendu, in turn, demanded ₹40 lakh from each candidate so he could pocket ₹8 lakh,”  HT reported.

During the investigation, it was also revealed that the applicants were made to memorise the answers from the leaked question paper at Learn Boys Hostel and Play School in Patna’s Khemnichak.

DIG Rajeev Mishra confirmed that the police search found half-burnt papers.
“When police searched the place, we found a bundle of half-burnt papers. We sent it to the Forensic Science Laboratory. The FSL team somehow managed to discover the booklet number.” Yadavendu brought four aspirants—Ayush, Anurag Kumar, Shivanandan Kumar, and Abhishek Kumar — to the centre.

An investigator said, “We identified their examination centres and detained the four aspirants for the investigation,” per the HT report. Later, the EOU took charge of the case and arrested five more people from Deoghar in Jharkhand.

Bihar EOU officials blamed the NTA for delaying their investigations and alleged that the question paper samples came in on June 20. EOU investigations revealed that the question papers were sent in PDF format on May 4 and traced the location to Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh.

The EOU official said, “We traced the box and envelope in which the T3 set of the papers was dispatched from the examination centre. Preliminary investigations showed it was torn at the back, and resealed to resemble an original sheet,” reported HT. He added, “It seems like the two boxes were tampered with. The superintendent at the exam centre said that digital locks on both boxes could not be opened because of a technical issue, and they had to be broken open,” the officer said.

The CBI took over the case from the Bihar Police on June 25. So far, 18 people have been arrested in the case.