Opposition to raise NEET in Parliament; CBI makes first arrest

The Opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc is set to push adjournment motions in both houses of the Parliament today for a debate on the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024.

This decision was taken by the INDIA bloc parties during a meeting at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Thursday.

This comes a day after President Droupadi Murmu mentioned the paper leak issue while addressing the joint sitting of the Parliament.

Here are the latest updates on the NEET row:

President Droupadi Murmu, during her address to the joint sitting in the Parliament, said that the government is committed to a fair investigation in the case and urged people to “rise above partisan politics”. Responding to the President’s address, Congress’ Kharge said, “The Modi government cannot run away from its responsibility by just simply saying that ‘we should rise above partisan politics’…The youth is demanding justice.”

According to the Opposition leaders, if the NEET issue is not taken up for discussion in the Parliament today, then they will stage a protest inside the House.

On Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made its first arrest in the NEET UG paper leak case and took two people into custody in Patna. According to reports, the two arrested accused, identified as Manish Kumar and Ashutosh Kumar, allegedly provided safe accommodation to the medical entrance exam aspirants before the examination and gave them leaked question papers and answer keys.

The CBI also recorded statements of three candidates in Gujarat who had allegedly solicited help to clear the exam, reported PTI.

The NEET question paper may have been leaked on May 3 while being transported from the Ranchi airport to an office of courier company Blue Dart, and then to the Hazaribagh branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) with the help of employees of either the transport company or the courier agency, officials said.

Earlier, an eight-member team of the CBI visited the main branch of the SBI in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district, as the bank manager was reportedly the custodian of the NEET-UG 2024 exam question papers.

A total of 20 people have been arrested in the case so far, including the 18 accused held by the Economic Offence Wing (EOU) of the Bihar Police.

The Delhi police have registered a case against members of the Congress’ National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) as they barged into the NTA office during a protest against the NEET issue.

Meanwhile, Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary said that the state government would bring in a stringent law to curb exam paper leaks, adding that the new law will be passed by the assembly in the upcoming monsoon session of the state legislature. “Following the direction of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the state government is going to introduce a stringent law to check cases of question paper leaks in Bihar,” he said, as quoted by PTI.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP K Kanimozhi on Thursday reiterated the demand to “exempt” Tamil Nadu from NEET conducted by the NTA for medical admissions across the country. “Tamil Nadu has been consistently saying that we do not want NEET. Now it is proved that NEET is not a fair examination, and students are losing so much because of NEET,” Kanimozhi told ANI.