Education Min Claims 'No Evidence of Paper Leaks' in 7 Years? Here Are the Facts

Team WebQoof found that there have multiple paper leaks in the past seven years, where arrests were made as well.

Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan, while answering a question in the Lok Sabha, said that there is no evidence that paper leaks have happened in the past seven years.

What did Pradhan say?: At around the 8:50 timestamp, he could be heard saying, "Honourable member has raised a question regarding question paper leak in last seven years, 70 times. Sir, with full responsibility, I would like to submit in front of house, to you sir, there is no evidence of paper leak in last seven years." Following this, Pradhan mentioned the NEET case being heard in the apex court.

Is this claim true? No. There have been multiple instances of paper leaks in the past seven years, and the police have even registered cases and arrested people.

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About the UGC-NET 2024 paper leak: According to reports, the June 2024 UGC-NET (University Grants Commission - National Eligibility Test) examinations were cancelled a day after they were conducted. The UGC received inputs that the integrity of the exams was 'compromised'.

• On 20 June, Pradhan addressed a press conference and said that the UGC chairman received information from authorities that some questions had been leaked on the dark net (from 07:00 timestamp onwards).

• He mentioned that these questions matched the original question paper prepared by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

• Pradhan further said that when it became certain that both of them were the same, a decision to cancel the examinations was taken and the matter was referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

• It should be noted that the examinations were rescheduled to be held between 21 August and 4 September of this year.

UGC-NET Hindi paper 2021: The paper for the UGC NET Hindi examination, that was held on 26 December, had leaked and following this, a team of Haryana police was trying to arrest a CRPF constable who was connected to the case, India Today reported.

• The copy of the First Information Report (FIR) was also sent to the UGC to inform the body about the developments.

• Indian Express, in its report, said that around nine people from the Jind and Bhiwani districts were arrested in different raids after information about the paper leak was received.

• The report mentioned that the arrested accused told the police that one of the accused, Vikas, had sent the question paper to them on WhatsApp almost six hours before the examination took place.

• It further quoted an official saying, "The accused have claimed that they had succeeded in accessing 150 questions of the Hindi exam paper in advance. We also found these questions on their cellphone. But still we want to get it verified from UGC officials."

NEET 2021 paper leak: A news report published in The New Indian Express said that the NEET question paper was leaked after a person captured a picture and sent it others in Sikar.

• The Jaipur Police arrested around eight people, including a girl, from the examination centre in Rajasthan Institute of Engineering and Technology (RIET).

• A Hindustan Times report added that the accused, Dineshwari Kumar, her uncle, exam invigilator Ram Singh along with Mukesh, the person in charge of the examination centre's administration unit, were arrested.

• The report mentioned that Singh and Mukesh sent the images of the question paper to two individuals in Jaipur's Chitrakoot area, who then forwarded the same to others in Sikar.

• It further quoted Jaipur's DCP (West) Richa Tomar saying, "The men (in Sikar) forwarded the answer key to the two men in Chitrakoot who then forwarded it Mukesh. Mukesh then forwarded it to Singh. Singh helped Dineshwari solve the paper with the help of the answer key."

Other instances of misconduct during examinations: In September 2021, the CBI had registered cases against Affinity Education Private Limited, its directors, employees, and others for solving the question paper of candidates via remote access from a centre in Haryana's Sonepat.

• CBI had arrested a Russian hacker named Mikhail Shargin in October 2022 for allegedly hacking into the software on which the examination was conducted.

• The agency had then arrested Vinay Dahiya in March 2023, who was reportedly the mastermind in the 2021 JEE Mains examination paper leak case.

• The Quint recently published a story which carried a compilation of instances of paper leaks and misconduct during examinations conducted by the NTA. You can read it here.

We have reached out to the office of Education Minister Pradhan for a comment and the story will be updated once we hear back from them.

Conclusion: It is clear that the statement made by Pradhan is misleading as there have been multiple cases of paper leaks in the past seven years.

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