Leaks, solver gangs: How NEET, doorway to highly desired medical profession, is losing trust year after year

NAtional Eligibility cum spellbind prove (NEET-UG), India's to the highest degree competitory spellbind test, clearing which opens doors to the highly desired profession — medical — has once again come under intense scrutiny amid fresh allegations of irregularities, reviving memories of the massive controversy that rocked the examination in 2024.With lakhs of medical aspirants dependent on a single national exam, repeated questions over transparency have triggered renewed debate on the credibility of examination, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Track latest updates on NEET 2026 hereWhat happened in NEET 2024?The NEET-UG examination held on May 5, 2024, quickly spiralled into controversy when allegations of a question paper leak surfaced across multiple states. The suspicions of leak stemmed social media claims that exam questions were leaked — allegations that the NTA denied — and later were intensified by the June 4 results wherein multiple students of one examination centre in Haryana securing a score of 720/720, unprecedented in the testing agency's history.Investigations later led to a wider plot, revealing a paper leak network operated through organised "solver gangs", allegedly accessing the question paper from secure storage locations and distributing answers to candidates before the exam began. Probe revealed the paper leak gangs' links in Bihar, Jharkhand and other parts of the country.Authorities made the first arrests in June 2024 in Bihar, further strengthened the allegations, and later also found that the paper had been leaked from an examination centre in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh, benefiting over 150 candidates.Grace marks and result rowThe controversy widened after results were unexpectedly declared on June 4, 2024, 10 days before originally scheduled date. Some candidates were awarded compensatory or "grace" marks after disruptions at certain centres, including incidents where wrong question papers were initially distributed and replaced mid-exam.Sixty-seven students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the testing agency's history, with six from the centre in Haryana figuring in the list. This raised suspicions about irregularities.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) eventually took over parts of the probe into the leak and alleged irregularities.In its 2024 probe, the federal agency arrested around 50 people, including members of a Bihar-based gang and its two key individuals-- Baldev Kumar and Aman Singh, staff of a Hazaribagh-based school, solvers and facilitators, and filed five charge sheets, as mentioned in an earlier HT report.A key suspect arrested by the Bihar police in the leak-- Sanjeev Mukhia-- was never charged by the CBI as it found no evidence against him.Despite acknowledging instances of malpractice, the Supreme Court refused to cancel the entire examination, citing lack of evidence of a system-wide breach and warning that a retest would severely disrupt medical admissions.In June 23, 2024, a re-test was conducted for the 1,563 students who were awarded grace marks in the May 5 NEET UG 2024 exam. A seven-member committee headed by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan was tasked with supervising the operational practices of the NTA and proposing exam reforms.By July 8 that year, the CBI had made several arrests in its probe over paper leak allegations while the Supreme Court had heard over 30 pleas related to alleged discrepancies in the NEET UG exam. The top court had said if the sanctity of the test is lost, then re-test has to be ordered, adding that the cancellation of the exam was "last resort".On July 23, the Supreme Court refused to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 exam and said there is no material to show that the sanctity of the entire examination has been affected.What has happened now?The NTA on Tuesday, May 12, said it is cancelling the NEET-UG exam conducted on May 3, citing “inputs” it received, taken together with the findings shared by the law enforcement agencies, established that the present examination process could not be allowed to stand.The “inputs” mentined referred to Rajasthan special operations group (SOG) launching a probe into alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2026 exam after investigators found that at least 120 questions matched those circulated earlier in a handwritten “guess paper”.Additional director general of SOG Vishal Bansal said the investigation began after the state police chief received inputs regarding a PDF containing hundreds of questions that had allegedly circulated among NEET aspirants through WhatsApp and other public platforms days before the examination held on May 3.“A few days ago, an internal tip-off was received by DGP Rajeev Sharma that a PDF of a guess paper had been widely circulated among NEET students through WhatsApp and other public domains before the examination. The question bank contained 400 questions, out of which 120 questions from chemistry and biology were found common in the NEET paper comprising 200 questions,” an earlier HT report quoted Bansal as saying.The dates for re-examination, along with the re-issued admit-card schedule, will be communicated through the official channels of the agency in the coming days, NTA said.The NTA, in its five-point statement, also said that the government of India has further decided to refer the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a comprehensive inquiry into the allegations therein. “NTA will extend full cooperation to the Bureau and will provide all materials, records, and assistance the inquiry requires,” the agency said.“This decision has been taken in the interest of students and in recognition of the trust on which the national examination system rests. The Agency is conscious that re-conduct will cause real and significant inconvenience to candidates and their families. NTA does not take that consequence lightly. The decision has been taken because the alternative would have caused greater and more lasting damage to that trust,” it said.