NEET Paper Leak Case: CBI Arrests Principal, Vice Principal Of Jharkhand's Oasis School

The Central Bureau of Investigation made two more arrests in the NEET UG paper leak case, nabbing the principal and vice principal of Oasis school in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh, officials said.

The principal -- Ehsanul Haque -- was made the city coordinator of Hazaribagh for the national-level medical entrance test, which was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5.

Meanwhile, Oasis School's vice principal -- Imtiaz Alam -- was designated as the NTA's observer and the central coordinator at the school, officials said.

They said that five more persons from the district are being questioned by the CBI in connection with the paper leak case. Haque and Alam were arrested after extensive questioning by the federal probe agency, officials noted.

Both the accused came under the probe agency's scanner during a probe by the Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit (EOU) which was investigating the case earlier.

Officials said that they found burnt question papers of NEET UG 2024 during a raid at a hideout of the solver gang.

WHAT'S THE OASIS SCHOOL CONNECTION?

Hazaribagh's Oasis School comes into the picture, with the EOU claiming that the "leaked" NEET UG question paper was allegedly obtained from the school by Sanjeev Kumar alias the Lutan Mukhiya gang.

The EOU team had said that investigators had matched a partially burnt question paper found from the Patna safe house with the reference question paper which was provided by the NTA, confirming the origin of the leak.

However, officials said that it could not clearly be established as to who was behind the alleged paper leak.

They said that the probe also found that Hazaribagh authorities did not properly follow the protocols spelled out for opening the question paper boxes.

Notably, Haque had in media interviews asserted that the box carrying the question papers could not be opened due to its digital lock, adding that what was supposed to unlock automatically, had malfunctioned.

The boxes which carry the question papers come with two locks -- a manual lock that opens with a key and cutter and a digital lock that opens with a beep sound 45 minutes before the exam.

This was a swift development in the case, after the central probe agency made its first two arrests from Bihar in connection with the alleged irregularities in the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) UG 2024 examination.

The two accused caught from Bihar -- Manish Kumar and Ashutosh Kumar -- had reportedly provided shelter to NEET aspirants before their exam, where they were provided with the leaked question paper and answer keys.

So far, the CBI has registered six FIRs in the NEET-UG paper leak case, including its own FIR, which was based on a complaint from the Union Education Ministry and five from the states where it took over the probe.

Notably, the probe agency has taken over three cases in Rajasthan and one each in Bihar and Gujarat.

The two arrested from Bihar were produced before a special court in Patna, which sent them both to judicial custody. Official had said that CBI would seek their remand to interrogate them.

The Education Ministry last week had declared that it was handing over the probe into the discrepancies in the medical entrance exam to the central probe agency, seeking a thorough investigation into the matter.

"For transparency on the conduct of the examination process, it was decided after a review that the matter be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for comprehensive investigation," a senior official from the ministry had said.