In the aftermath of canceling the UGC-NET paper based on inputs provided by the national anti-cybercrime agency, union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan recently announced, that exam papers were leaked ‘in the darknet’ on Thursday.
As per education minister, cancelling UGC-NET paper within 24 hours wasn’t a ‘knee-jerk reaction.
Speaking about alleged paper leak, Pradhan said, ‘Based on information from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), prima facie it was found that there were question papers in the darknet. Papers were also being circulated on Telegram (messaging platform).’
He also revealed that the leaked question paper matched with the authentic one. That’s why the exams were cancelled.
Earlier, the joint secretary of education ministry Govind Jaiswal, had announced, that fresh exam will be held, but the timeline hasn’t been revealed yet.
Meanwhile, this development coincided with recent allegations made by students, which alleged, that the NEET-UG 2024 paper had been leaked.
Additionally, 1,500 students were initially awarded grace marks. However, following protests, these grace marks were removed, and students were offered the option to take a re-test. Which will take place on June 23.
But the education minister has consistently denied any claims of a leaked paper. Meanwhile the case has taken a new turn with the arrest of four men, who confessed, that the paper was leaked night before the exam.
The names of the arrested men are aspirant Anurag Yadav, his uncle Sikandar – who is a junior engineer at Danapur municipal council, Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand.
It remains to be seen, when the exams of UGC-NET will be conducted.