Accused hatched conspiracy two months before exam to identify vulnerable centre

The accused involved in "stealing" the NEET-UG examination 2024 had hatched a conspiracy "two months before" the exam "to identify a vulnerable centre". The accused individually approached candidates and their parents to "mobilise" them and secured post-dated cheques in lieu of supplying the leaked paper.

The CBI informed the top court that one of the accused Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya entered the examination centre at Oasis school in Hazaribagh at 8.02 am on May 5 (the day the exam was to be held), broke open the trunk containing the examination paper, took pictures of the paper, and resealed it with a lighter. He stepped out of the examination centre at 9:23 am (as captured by the CCTV camera) and WhatsApped the picture of the stolen exam paper to his accomplice who was present with seven solvers (all students) in a hotel room.

To ensure that no one else receives a copy of the stolen paper including the solvers, the accused had taken away mobile phones of the seven solvers. After the seven solved the examination, Pankaj digitally shared the answer sheet to the candidates at the two centres in Hazaribagh and two centres in Patna.

Interestingly, the stolen paper resealed by Pankaj was given to a girl candidate who had flagged the same during the examination. It has been claimed by the CBI that the accused had tried to burn the solved copies of the paper. The half-burnt copy of the paper which, like every single exam paper contained a unique number, was recovered. It is from this unique number that the CBI was able to zero-in on the centre (in Hazaribagh) from where the paper leak took place.

The modus operandi was detailed by the CBI counsel in the top court on Tuesday. The CBI however is yet to seize the mobile phone from which the leaked paper was digitally shared. The CBI is yet to arrest the kingpin in the case -- Sanjiv Mukhia.

The accused had destroyed the mobile phone used to share the solved copies of the leaked paper. The CBI has so far seized 18 mobile phones from the accused and sent them for forensic examination. Meanwhile, the Centre informed the top court that the top 100 students in NEET-UG are spread over 95 centres, 56 cities and 18 states/UTs. The figure was presented by the Centre to buttress its claim that the "breach" at one centre had "no cross-country impact" on the sanctity of the examination.