NEET students demanded the cancellation of the examination in Patna.

Patna, June 15, 2024: Around 100 NEET aspirants staged a fierce protest on the streets of Patna on Saturday, demanding cancellation of the examination.

The students burnt the effigy of the Union Education Minister and set tires on fire. The protesters gathered at Dinkar Roundabout and blocked traffic, raising slogans against the Central government. Due to the intense heat, one protester fell unconscious.

Patna Police resorted to a mild lathi-charge to disperse the crowd. Massive protests over the NEET paper leak are continuing across the country.

“The students burnt tires and blocked the road. As the traffic was disrupted, we removed them forcibly. The situation is under control,” said a woman police officer at the spot.

The protest in Patna intensified after the Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) issued notices to 11 examiners in connection with the leak of question papers. Thirteen people have been arrested so far in the case.

The NEET exam was held on May 5:

The NEET exam was held on May 5, but the exam mafia allegedly obtained the question paper a day earlier. Among those arrested are 6 members of the exam mafia, 4 candidates and 3 parents. The candidates have reportedly admitted that they received the question paper on May 4 at Learn Play School under Ram Krishna Nagar police station limits, and that the question matched the May 5 paper exactly.

EOU recovered partially burnt question papers from the school. Out of these, 74 questions were retrieved, including three copies of booklet number 6136488. The agency had sought the original copy of booklet number 6136488 from NTA more than a month ago to match and verify the questions. But despite three reminders, NTA has not sent the original copy—causing a delay in the investigation.

The NEET result was declared on June 4:

Another point of suspicion is the timing of the NEET result. It was scheduled for June 14 but was declared earlier, on June 4, the same day as the Lok Sabha results. This year, 67 students scored a perfect 720/720, and a thousand scored above 700. The cut-off also rose sharply. Out of 24 lakh candidates, over 13 lakh cleared the exam.

Controversy intensified after it emerged that 1,563 students were given grace marks, despite no such provision in the exam notification. NTA told the court it would cancel the grace marks and hold a re-test for those 1,563 students on June 23.

However, petitioners—along with NEET teachers and students—say cancelling only grace marks is insufficient. They are demanding a full re-examination, citing the Bihar EOU investigation and raising questions on the credibility of NTA.

Also Read: EOU received 95 complaints related to objectionable and misleading posts on social media.

EOM.