NEET-UG Paper Leak: Supreme Court's Detailed Judgement Today; CBI Files First Chargesheet

The Supreme Court will pronounce its detailed judgment on Friday giving reasons for not cancelling the NEET-UG 2024 examination. On July 23, the apex court had rejected the plea for a re-test and stated that the detailed reasons would be given later.

CJI DY Chandrachud had observed that conducting a fresh exam would have serious consequences as it would affect more than 24 lakh students who appeared in this exam. It would disrupt the admission schedule, and have cascading effects on the course of the medical entrance exam and its counselling process, the CJI observed.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed its first chargesheet under sections 120-B, 201, 409, 380, 411, 420 and 109 IPC in the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 examination. The probe agency also filed substantive offences thereof against 13 accused persons namely Nitish Kumar, Amit Anand, Sikander Yadvendu, Ashutosh Kumar-1, Roshan Kumar, Manish Prakash, Ashutosh Kumar-2, Akhilesh Kumar, Avdesh Kumar, Anurag Yadav, Abhishek Kumar, Shivnandan Kumar and Ayush Raj.

The case was initially registered at Shastri Nagar Police Station, Patna and later transferred to the CBI on June 23. The probe agency has, so far, arrested 40 accused in this case including 15 arrested by Bihar Police and conducted searches at 58 locations.

Last week, the CBI had said in an official statement that the NEET-UG 2024 question paper was illicitly accessed from the Oasis School in Hazaribagh on the morning of May 5 by one Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya alias Sahil, who is one of the masterminds in the case. The question paper was stolen in connivance with the Hazaribagh NTA City Coordinator Cum Principal of Oasis School and the Centre Superintendent Cum Vice Principal of Oasis School.

Further investigation against other accused/ suspects and on other aspects of the case is underway. Several other accused are already in police/ judicial custody. As and when further investigation against these accused/ suspects is complete, supplementary charge sheet(s) will be filed, the investigative agency said in a statement.