NEET Paper Leak Case: EOU Hands Over Evidence To CBI, All Accused Directed To Seek Bail From CBI Court

The Economic Offenses Unit submitted all evidence related to the NEET exam paper leak case to the central investigating agency for further investigation after the CBI on Monday formally took over the investigation.

Patna: The Economic Offenses Unit (EOU) team on June 25 handed over all evidence related to the NEET exam paper leak case to the CBI while the Patna Civil Court asked the 13 arrested accused who had filed for bail and the main accused Sanjeev Mukhiya, who is absconding to seek bail from CBI Court.

A copy of the FIR and the case diary were obtained by a two-person CBI team during their visit to the EOU office. They also got an update on the investigation's progress from the state investigative agency. The CBI team also received a copy of the FIR that the Patna police had filed at their Shashtri Nagar Police Station.

The NEET-UG exam was held in five schools in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, and the EOU thought that one of the schools had leaked the question paper. Additional Director General (EPU) NH Khan 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.”

The EOU said that it had found the details of the questions set and traced the candidate who got the T3 set of question papers. "We also managed to trace the box and envelope in which the T3 set was dispatched for the exam and it was torn on the rear side and sealed to resemble an original sheet,” an EOU official said.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which is in charge of administering these tests, is allegedly guilty of serious errors, according to the EOU. The investigating agency discovered that every question in the original booklet matched exactly with the questions from the burned booklet that was found during the Patna raid.

Uday Shankar Singh, the Public Prosecutor and lawyer of the primary accused Sanjeev Mukhiya filed for anticipatory bail in the court of Additional District Judge (ADJ). The court on June 25 directed them towards the CBI court and also told the public prosecutor to provide information to the court along with the order paper.

“The hearing for the bail of 13 accused and the anticipatory bail plea of the main accused Sanjeev Mukhiya will be held in the Special CBI Court on July 15. We will submit the case transfer order letter in the CBI Court today,” Singh said on Tuesday, June 25.

The NEET examination was held on May 5 and The National Testing Agency (NTA) was notified of the scam on June 16, post the exam results announcement. As many as 13 accused including six people linked to the education mafia, four candidates and three parents have been arrested so far.

A case was initially registered at the Shastri Nagar Police Station in Patna which was later transferred to the EOU of Bihar. The unit arrested six more accused from Deoghar in Jharkhand on June 23. After the recommendation of the Union Education Minister, the case was transferred to the CBI on June 24.

For damage control, the centre removed the grace marks granted to 1,563 students and only about half of them took the retest that was arranged for them. The NTA director general was removed, and the investigation had to be handed over to the CBI, which filed a criminal case after receiving a written complaint from the Ministry of Education.