Twist in Nagpur NEET aspirant's story: NTA says candidate 'selected Abu Dhabi'; Dubai was second option for exam centre

THe subject Testing authority (NTA) on sabbatum issued a illumination after a educatee from Nagpur was allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi for NEET UG 2026 re-examination, scheduled on June 21.A senior NTA official said that the candidate had himself changed the examination city preferences through the portal, selecting Abu Dhabi as the first choice and Dubai as the second option.The father of the student, Abdulla Talib, said his son had given preference to Nagpur, Wardha, and Bhandara centres for the NEET UG examination.However, NTA official said that the modification on the NTA portal was done using the same IP address which was used to download the admit card for the May 3 examination."Records show that on May 21, the candidate logged in and changed his examination city preferences, selecting Abu Dhabi as the first choice and Dubai as the second. The same IP address, traced to Nagpur, was used to download his admit card for the May 3 examination," the official told HT.He further said that the bank details for a refund was updated using the same IP on May 24."He (candidate) also updated his bank details for a refund on May 24, accessed the city intimation slip on June 10 and downloaded his admit card on June 16 using the same IP address,” the official said.In a post on X, NTA further said that on 3 occasions, the centre was changed to Abu Dhabi using candidate’s credentials and twice it was previewed that the centre is Abu Dhabi. The NTA said the despite receiving an “informal request on the evening of June 19” to change the centre to Nagpur, the centre was changed.'Admit card downloaded on June 16, didn't flag to NTA'The NTA official said that despite downloading the admit card on June 16, the candidate or his family didn't contact the NTA or sent any mail.“We have complete logs of his activities on the NEET portal. Despite downloading the admit card on June 16, neither the candidate nor his family contacted the NTA and did not send any mail regarding this. Instead, his father approached the media on June 20, just a day before the exam. We are now allotting him a centre in Nagpur, but our cyber team is examining whether the changes were made by the candidate himself or by someone who may have gained access to his account,” the official said.The official added that the Nagpur case was the only instance where a candidate was allotted an overseas centre and maintained that no other such cases had come to light. “We have accommodated requests from several candidates seeking changes in examination centres at the last minute,” the official added.What NEET aspirant claimed?The NEET aspirant claimed that he had opted Nagpur as his preferred city for the examination, to be held on Sunday. However, the father said he was allotted an overseas centre.The family said that the candidate did not have a passport, nor did they have enough time to obtain one."We are completely unable to send our child abroad for the exam. He does not even have a passport, and there is no time left to make travel arrangements," the student's father, Mohammad Talib, told ANI.The incident drew outrage, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched criticism against the NTA, saying the agency was “testing the patience of the country.”The mix-up came to light on Saturday, a day when a nationwide mock drill was underway across the country ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on Sunday.The re-examination will be conducted on June 21 from 2 pm to 5.15 pm in the pen-and-paper mode across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad for over 22.79 lakh candidates.