The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday questioned a man in Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh in connection with the University Grant Commission (UGC)-National Eligibility Test (NET) paper leak case, officials said.
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The suspect allegedly posted a portion of the paper on Telegram Messenger, a cloud-based, cross-platform, instant messaging (IM) service. A team of the CBI Anti-Corruption branch questioned the person, whose identity is yet to be disclosed.
The Central agency registered a First Information Report (FIR) into the UGC-NET paper leak case on June 20 against unidentified people on a reference from the Union education ministry. The UGC-NET-2024 examination — used to determine the eligibility of candidates for awarding of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), appointment as assistant professor, and admission to PhD in Indian universities and colleges — was conducted by the NTA on June 18 in two shifts across the country.
On June 19, the Union Government received inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (l4C) that the paper was available on the darknet, Telegram applications and was allegedly being sold for ₹5-6 lakh, leading to the exam’s cancellation. The Ministry of Education announced the cancellation following prima facie indications that the integrity of the exam was compromised.
“To ensure the highest level of transparency and sanctity of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India has decided that the UGC-NET June 2024 Examination be cancelled,” it had said.