NEET Paper leak video on Telegram ‘manipulated’: NTA in Supreme Court

New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA) in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that a video on Telegram showing leaked paper is "fake".

NTA’s affidavit comes amid allegations of paper leak surrounding the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-UG 2024 (NEET-UG).

The agency termed the screenshots regarding the paper leak in the video shared on Telegram ‘fabricated’.

Around 24 lakh candidates took the NEET examination on May 5 with the results were scheduled on June 14 but were announced on June 4 accompanied by allegations of leaked questions and issue of awarding 'grace marks' to 1,563 students, according to NDTV.

Regarding the video, the NTA said in its affidavit: ‘The video in question allegedly shows a photo of the exam paper leaked on Telegram on May 4, but one image, which was edited, displays a timestamp of 17:40 PM on May 5, 2024. Additionally, discussions within the Telegram channel indicate that members indicated the video as fake.’

The testing agency further told the court that ‘Comments and discussions on social media further collaborate that the image in the video were edited, and the date was intentionally modified to suggest a May 4th leak. The screenshots highlight the fabric nature of the claims made in the video.’

Alongside, the court was told that no NEET-UG question paper was found to be missing or no locks were broken in Bihar where allegations of paper leak first surfaced in capital Patna.

‘No question paper was found missing in any Trunk. Each question paper has a unique serial number and was assigned to a particular candidate. No locks were found broken,’ the affidavit reportedly said.

The NTA also added in its affidavit that no untoward incident was found in the CCTV coverage in the Command Centre alongside NTA observers had not reported anything ‘adverse’.

Meanwhile, The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested eight people in Bihar in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case.