Fact-Check: Photo of NEET (UG) 2024 Candidates Shared With False Communal Angle

The viral photo shows an ad issued by Universal Institute in Kerala, who displayed their students' scores.

Social media users are sharing posts related to the  National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak, along with an image showing a list of candidates who scored above-average marks on the test.

• Those sharing the image have claimed that it shows aspirants appearing from the Oasis School centre in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, who 'benefitted' from the paper leak.

• The claim is being shared with a communal angle, as most of the students appearing in the image seem to belong to the Muslim community.

The Quint also received a query to verify this claim on its WhatsApp tipline.

(Archives of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: While it is true that the question paper for the exam was leaked at Oasis School in Hazaribagh, the image in the claim has no connection to Jharkhand.

• It shows an advertisement published by Universal Institute in Kottakkal, Kerala, who shared a list of their highest scoring students.

• There are no reports or evidence of any irregularities at any centre in Kerala, especially in Kottakkal.

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How did we find out the truth? Using the names and scores of specific candidates—such as 670 for one Fathima Wafa—we looked for more details on Google and social media platforms.

• This led us to a post on a page called 'Universal Kottakkal' on Facebook, which had shared the same photo and NEET 2024 score for Fathima Wafa, on 7 June.

One can see that this post is similar to a part of the viral image shared in the claim.

We also saw other posts sharing the marks of different candidates. Four students from the coaching institute Universal Kottakkal had scored between 700 and 705 marks.

More on Kottakkal: To understand the reason behind so many of the candidates belonging to the Muslim community, we looked into the demographics of Kottakkal, which lies in Kerala's Malappuram district.

• On the official website of the Census of India, we looked for data regarding the population of Kerala, sorted by religion.

• The document with the data showed that in 2011, Malappuram had a population of slightly over 41 lakh people, of which 28.89 lakh identified as Muslims.

This shows that approximately 70 percent of Malappuram's population practised Islam in 2011, providing one explanation for why so many people in the viral image belong to the Muslim community.

Were there irregularities in the exam centres in Malappuram?: A keyword search using the terms 'NEET Malappuram' on Google only show listings for various coaching centers.

• We did not find any relevant results which discussed any paper leak or irregularities at exam centers in Malappuram.

• The only reports we came across were related to a coaching center that provided support and hospitality for students appearing for NEET and their parents.

• The National Testing Agency (NTA), the body responsible for conducting entrance exams pan-India, had uploaded center-wise scores for all candidates on its website.

• We looked at the scores for all 30 centres in Malappuram and found that there were only two exam centres located in Kottakkal.

• After reviewing the list of candidates and their scores created by Factly's Dataful, we saw that many candidates had scored similar marks.

This shows that the students whose photos are shown in the viral claim are not the highest scorers in Kottakkal or Malappuram.

NEET (UG) 2024 Toppers: A revised list of the toppers of the NEET (UG) 2024 toppers, compiled by The Quint, shows that none of the students pictured in the viral claim were the toppers of the exam.

Conclusion: Neither does the viral photo show the toppers of the NEET (UG) 2024 exams, nor did the students pictured in the claim appear for the exams from Oasis School in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh.

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