The NEET paper leak: A timeline of delays and denials by the government

On Sunday, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report about alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, which was conducted on May 5 for admissions to undergraduate medical courses.

The FIR was filed after the Economic Offences Unit of Bihar told the Centre that the irregularities in the examination “clearly suggests a paper leak”.

The findings in the report submitted by the Economic Offences Unit of Bihar is significant because allegations of paper leak had emerged in the state on May 5 – the day of the examination itself. The Bihar Police had even arrested two men in connection with the matter on the same day.

The Bihar Police made a total of 13 arrests before the CBI took over the investigation on Sunday. In Gujarat too, the police had registered a case of attempted malpractice in the examination, three days after it was held.

One of the arrested men in Bihar, who appeared for NEET, has confessed that the question paper was leaked a night before the examination.

These developments took place even as the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the National Testing Agency, which conducted the examination, repeatedly denied large-scale irregularities in the examination.

Even the FIR filed by the CBI on Sunday has been registered on the basis of a...

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