The question paper for the 2024 undergraduate National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test was stolen from Oasis School in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh on the morning of May 5, the day of the exam, said the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday.

The competitive entrance exam for admissions to undergraduate medical courses was held at 4,751 centres in India this year. Around 24 lakh students appeared for it.

After the results of the exam were announced on June 4, allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities came to light. The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report in the case on June 22.

On Thursday, the investigating agency said that after the question paper was stolen, it was solved by a group of MBBS students and shared with “certain selected students who paid money to the accused”.

“These solvers were specially brought to Hazaribagh as part of the conspiracy,” the agency said. “The candidates who gained access to the solved question paper are being traced and necessary action is being taken.”

The Hindustan Times reported on Friday that the solvers are students from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Bihar’s Patna, the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi and another medical college in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur. Seven of them have been arrested.

Twenty-three candidates who wrote the NEET-UG exam at Hazaribagh’s Oasis School scored above 600 marks.

“Investigation has revealed that NEET (UG) - 2024 Question Paper was illicitly accessed from the Oasis School, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, on May 5 morning by one Pankaj Kumar…who is one of the masterminds of the NEET paper leak case,” the investigating agency stated.

It said that the question papers were stolen “in connivance with the Hazaribagh National Testing Agency City Coordinator Cum Principal of Oasis School and the Centre Superintendent of Oasis School Cum Vice Principal of the Oasis School and another associate from Hazaribagh”.

Pankaj Kumar was arrested on Tuesday. The school’s principal, Ehsanul Haque, and vice principal Imtiaz Alam were arrested on June 28.

“The recovered pieces of half-burnt question papers enabled CBI to reach the designated NEET examination centre from where it leaked,” the agency said. “The trunks containing the NEET-UG 2024 question papers were brought to the school and kept in the control room in the morning of May 5. Minutes after the trunks arrived, [Haque and Alam] illegally allowed access to the room where the trunks were kept to [Pankaj Kumar]. The sophisticated tools used to open the trunk and access the question papers from the trunk have been seized.”

At least 36 persons have been arrested in the case so far, including 15 by Bihar Police, the Central Bureau of Investigation confirmed.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to order a re-examination of the 2024 undergraduate National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test, saying that there was not enough evidence to show a widespread leak of the question paper.

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