The Centre on Saturday night announced that the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET will be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
The cancellation of UGC-NET, amid the raging row over NEET, led to questions being raised over National Testing Agency's (NTA) capability to conduct exams of larger magnitude.
The state police crime branch is reported to have established conduct of malpractices by officials of board of school education (BOSE) and education department to help the state education ministers' son pass his board exam in 2009.
There were strong indications that the minister may announce the cancellation of the exam and action against NTA DG Subodh Kumar Singh, who was summoned by the ministry earlier in the day.
A special CBI court in Godhra on Saturday granted the probe agency four-day custody of Jay Jalaram School's principal Purushottam Sharma, teacher Tushar Bhatt, and middlemen Vibhor Anand and Arif Vohra, all of whom are alleged to be involved in irregularities in the May 5 NEET-UG exam in Godhra.
There have been allegations of inflation of marks in NEET-UG which has led to a record 67 candidates sharing top rank with perfect score.
At least 52 percent -- 813 out of 1,563 candidates -- appeared for the retest on Sunday, said NTA.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two persons including a key accused in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) paper leak case who allegedly stole the paper from a National Testing Agency's trunk in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, officials said Tuesday.
The Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit, which is probing the alleged National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak case, on Saturday claimed to have obtained reference question papers of the test conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) and planned to compare these with documents recovered from a flat in Patna during a search operation last month.
The central probe agency will now be able to question these accused in custody and also confront them with kingpin Rockey alias Rakesh Ranjan who was arrested on Thursday.
Several FIITJEE centres in Delhi-NCR have abruptly shut down, leaving students and parents who paid lakhs of rupees in fees in a difficult situation. The closures are attributed to non-payment of salaries for months, leading to teachers resigning and joining other coaching institutes. FIRs have been registered against two FIITJEE centres in Noida and Ghaziabad, highlighting allegations of criminal conspiracy and breach of trust. Parents are concerned about their children's academic future and are seeking answers and solutions from FIITJEE.
A special investigation team visited the Bihar School Examination Board and quizzed its chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad. The team seized computers and hard disk from the BSEB office.
The Congress's student and youth wings took to the streets in the national capital on Thursday over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG and UGC-NET exams, with NSUI members forcefully entering the NTA headquarters and locking its office, and the IYC staging a huge protest at Jantar Mantar.
Here is an explainer on the functioning of the seven-year-old body.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday made its first arrests in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak case, taking two people in custody in Patna while three candidates in Gujarat who had allegedly solicited help to clear the exam recorded their statements with the probe agency, officials said.
'I do not think the scam is limited to 1,563 students. The number is too low to have caused such an inflation in the marks'
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre, the National Testing Agency (NTA) and others on petitions seeking the cancellation of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2024 (NEET-UG 2024), and a court-monitored probe into the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday urged job aspirants not to destroy public property and assured them that their grievances would be resolved as candidates went on a rampage over alleged irregularities in a recruitment exam by the public transporter.
The protesters assembled outside Dogra Chowk in the heart of the city and tried to take out a march in violation of prohibitory orders when the police swung into action and restored to mild lathicharge before detaining several of them, the officials said.
Yadvendu claimed that he demanded Rs 40 lakh from each aspirant, including his nephew Anurag Yadav, for providing the leaked question paper on May 4, a day before the exam.
The agency is under criticism amid allegations of irregularities and inflation of marks in the crucial medical entrance exam.
Bihar government on Monday dissolved a committee constituted by Bihar School Examination Board to probe into alleged irregularities in evaluation of marks in this year's 10+2 examination.
NEET is a court-ordered examination, supposedly aimed at meritocracy. However, over the past years when the incumbent Narendra Modi government at the Centre began implementing it, it took on political and casteist colours, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
It added that in any examination, there are competing rights that are created whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any unfair means must not also be jeopardised.
All complaints were forwarded to the state-level grievance redressal committee, which was formed by the state government on Tuesday evening after agitation by junior doctors who are currently on a "total cease work".
Sanjeev Kumar alias Sanjeev 'Mukhiya', an alleged kingpin behind the NEET paper leak, was not only minting money but wanted to become an MP or MLA.
A vacation bench of Justices RK Agrawal and Amitava Roy gave the ruling on a batch of petitions seeking re-conduct of the AIPMT following the leak of the question paper and circulation of answer keys through electronic devices at different examination centres across 10 states.
The plea challenges the alleged award of grace marks on account of loss of time apparently due to several reasons. The petition is yet to be listed for hearing.
The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on petitions seeking re-conduct of All India Pre-Medical Test 2015 for alleged large-scale irregularities in the examination held on May 3.
The top court took note of the submissions of some aspirants that a question related to an "atom" and its characteristics had two correct answers and a set of examinees, who gave one particular answer out of the two correct ones, were awarded four marks.
The abbreviation of the exams which is the same as the one used for the power producer has been widely used to refer to the controversial test during the reportage on the issue.
Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned as BSEB chairman on Wednesday after noose started tightening around him in the scandal.
'It is our right to protest and draw the attention of this government, which is sleeping and appears blind, as it has failed to see the pain and struggle of the jobless youth.'
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The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear Central Board of Secondary Education's plea seeking more time to re-conduct All India Pre Medical Test-2015 exam which was scrapped in view of large-scale cheating in the test.
Hours before he was to appear for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for a third time, a 19-year old youth belonging to a village near Salem died by suicide on Sunday, fearing the outcome of the test he was to take.
Amid mounting pressure with regard to alleged irregularities in the class 12 examinations in Bihar, Vishun Roy College director-cum-principal Bachcha Rai -- who had been absconding ever since his name cropped up in the case being probed by the Special Investigation Team -- surrendered on Saturday.
During the hearing, the bench said it would decide whether to re-conduct the examination after receiving the status report from the police on June 10.
Yadav was named in an FIR registered on Tuesday by Special Task Force probing the multi-crore Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board or Vyapam scam under various sections of IPC, including 420 for cheating.
