NTA admits to NEET portal flaws as 19-year-old from Bihar siphons off refunds

THe subject Testing government agency (NTA) on mon admitted that its new introduced return process on the NEET-UG 2026 portal had “initial shortcomings” that were used by a 19-year-old man from Bihar to crack the login credentials of candidates for diverting their refunds to his own account.The vulnerabilities surfaced in the course of Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch’s investigation into a complaint by a parent that her daughter’s NEET application number and password had been stolen and misused. Based on the technical data provided by the NTA, combined with analysis of bank account details and human intelligence inputs, Gaya resident Navinkumar Yadav was traced and arrested from Bihar, said Sharad Singhal, Ahmedabad joint commissioner of police (crime).The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is required for admission to undergraduate medical courses.Also read: ‘Better we decide’: Supreme Court stays Trans Act proceedings at 4 high courtsHow were the refunds siphoned off Yadav targeted the NEET portal accounts of about 350 students across various states and managed to gain access to about 150 accounts, police said. He exploited weak and simple passwords used by around 150 of them to gain unauthorised access. Once inside the accounts, he changed the registered bank account details and replaced them with his own, aiming to divert the eligible refund amounts directly to himself.Investigators did not disclose how Yadav identified the accounts he targeted.Also read: Delhi's unsafe neighbourhoods and the human cost of unauthorised growthThe refunds were a consequence of the cancellation on May 12 of the NEET-UG 2026 examination held on May 3 after overlaps between a pre-circulated guess paper and the actual question paper were discovered. The CBI is probing the paper leak. The re-examination is on June 21. Over 2.27 million aspirants were affected by the cancellation.What the NTA said At a joint press conference in Ahmedabad with JCP Singhal, Akash Jain, Joint Director, NTA, said, “There is an attempt to tarnish the image of the NTA. This joint investigation is important to assure the students who have worked hard and put in sincere efforts do not feel cheated again.”Also read: Amid US-Iran war, clean energy allows India to withstand risksJain emphasised that the upcoming re-examination on June 21 will incorporate high security features using government protocols for question paper preparation, transportation, and overall conduct. Two-step security has been introduced, including mobile OTP, along with efforts for Aadhaar-based OTP. Jain added that refunds--a new step for the NTA -- are being aimed to be given as fast as possible to the students..“There may have been initial shortcomings but with this investigation we have learned and strengthened our system. We are now running the system with a high security feature,” said Jain.Separately, the Cyber Crime Branch arrested Sumer Singh, an ITI (Electronics) graduate from Jaipur, and Akash Meena, a B.A. Graduate from Kota, for operating an inter-state Telegram racket targeting candidates for the NEET retest. The duo falsely claimed to possess question papers, charging ₹49,999 for full packages and ₹12,750 for individual subjects.Investigations revealed they managed eight Telegram channels with artificially inflated memberships and operated 44 websites linked to gaming and cyber fraud. They laundered approximately ₹1.5 crore through various accounts to conceal the source of funds. While 12 complaints have been linked to their accounts and 1,000 contacts were identified, no actual examination material was recovered, police said.HT reached out to NTA officials in Delhi for a response but did not get one immediately. Separately, the agency in a release said that it has launched a platform “to facilitate candidates, parents, coaching institutes, and members of the public” report suspicious claims, unauthorised content, or fraudulent activities” related to the NEET retest.