Delhi court questions CBI's closure report in 2024 UGC-NET paper leak case

Raising questions on the CBI's bid to close the 2024 UGC-NET exam paper leak case, a Delhi court on Thursday warned its investigating officer (IO) of an ''adverse view'' if a written explanation was not submitted for explaining the closure report.

The court's stance on the agency's closure report assumes significance in view of the NEET (UG) 2026 exam for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges, held on May 3, being cancelled two days later amid allegations of paper leak.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Neetu Nagar said on Thursday, ''IO has sought an adjournment for the purpose of a written explanation. The same be filed on the next date of hearing (May 30), failing which an adverse view would be taken against the IO.''.

Earlier, on May 15, the court had noted that according to the closure report, ''Nikhil Soni has collected money from the aspirants of the UGC-NET, 2024 by luring them on the pretext of giving/leaking the exam paper''.

It said, ''It is manifest that a crime has been committed as per the contents of the para, but still the IO has ignored the same and filed a closure report for reasons best known to him.''.

The court then allowed the IO's submissions seeking adjournment as he needed ''some time'' to file a written explanation.

In January last year, the federal agency had filed its closure report in the case pertaining to the 2024 UGC-NET exam, which was cancelled following inputs suggesting that its question paper was leaked on the darknet and was being sold on Telegram.

The report said there was no evidence of a paper leak in the case. The agency also sent a report to the Union education ministry.

The central probe agency had found that a ''doctored'' screenshot of the ''leaked'' question paper for the June 18, 2024 exam was being circulated by a student to make some money.

On the exam day, the paper was found doing the rounds on Telegram channels in the afternoon before the second shift of UGC-NET, giving an impression that it was leaked and the person circulating it had access to it, the CBI had said.

According to the probe agency, the person who circulated the screenshot had doctored the image and its date and time stamp to show that he accessed the paper before the exam started.

More than 11 lakh candidates had registered for the exam which determines eligibility for junior research fellowship, appointment as assistant professors and PhD admissions in Indian universities and colleges.

The examination was cancelled by the education ministry on June 19, 2024, following an alert from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).

The investigation was handed over to the CBI, which found that the purported screenshot of the paper was created by a school student using an app.

The agency consulted forensic experts who said that the screenshot was doctored.

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