New Delhi, July 18: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare by 12 noon of July 20 the centre and city-wise results of controversy-ridden NEET-UG 2024 while masking the identities of the aspirants, saying it wanted to ascertain whether candidates appearing at allegedly tainted centres scored more marks than those elsewhere.
As it strove to address the allegations of malpractices in the conduct of the May 5 examination, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said any order for conducting it afresh has to be on concrete conclusion that the alleged leak was “systemic” and the sanctity of the entire process was affected. “We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students at the UG-2024 NEET examination, while, at the same time, without disclosing the identity of the students. The result should be declared city and centre wise by 12 noon on July 20, 2024 and shall be uploaded on the website of the NTA,” the bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said in its order. The top court will resume hearing arguments on July 22 on a batch of pleas seeking cancellation, re-test and court-monitored probe into the allegations of malpractice in the prestigious exam.
CBI arrests four AIIMS Patna students
The CBI on Thursday arrested four medical students of AIIMS Patna, who are alleged to be part of the ‘solver module’ working in collusion with a key accused held two days ago, in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case, officials said.
Three students of MBBS third year — Chandan Singh, Rahul Anant, and Kumar Shanu — and one second year student — Karan Jain — were arrested after detailed questioning by a CBI team, they said. The move comes two days after the CBI arrested Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, for allegedly stealing the NEET-UG 2024 paper from a trunk of the NTA in Hazaribagh.
It is alleged that the four arrested students were part of the solver module which was working in collusion with Kumar, the officials said.
With the four arrests on Thursday, the total number of persons arrested in connection with cases pertaining to leakage, impersonation and other irregularities in the medical entrance exam has now reached 18. Meanwhile, the CBI produced the arrested MBBS students before a special court in Patna on Thursday. (PTI)
