A team of Haryana police on Wednesday reached New Delhi to arrest a CRPF constable wanted in connection with the paper leak of the UGC NET Hindi exam held on December 26 this year.
A source in the police department said that the accused, identified as Vikas, is yet to be arrested but the CRPF authorities have been informed that he is wanted in the paper leak case. Another team of police has been sent to his native village in Dadri.
Meanwhile, the police have sent a copy of the FIR to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to inform it about the development. In different raids, police have arrested nine people from Jind and Bhiwani district on December 26 after it received information of the paper leak.
The arrested accused have told the police officials that Vikas had sent the question paper to them on WhatsApp almost six hours before the exam took place on December 26. Jind DSP Jitender Singh, who is heading the SIT investigation, said, “When the police teams conducted raids, the question paper was being solved by candidates in Bhiwani. A deal was struck with each of the candidates in exchange of Rs 3 lakh. However, the payment was to be made after announcement of the results only. Now, we will tell the UGC about such candidates.”
He added, “Most of the arrested accused are graduates. We are getting inputs that they were involved in such works earlier too but that needs to be verified. There are reports that a coaching academy of Satnali (Mahendragarh) too has links with them. Raids have been conducted at this academy too. Sixteen candidates of the Hindi exam were in contact with them.”
Meanwhile, the left-affiliated All India Students’ Association held a protest at the UGC headquarters.
“The UGC NET examination that is being conducted by the private and autonomous NTA must be conducted by UGC once again under full answerability to the public. The examination of NET examination for Hindi must be conducted once again at the earliest possible date,” it said.
Meanwhile, the NTA has announced its decision to re-conduct the UGC-NET 2021 Kannada paper after some students faced technical glitches during the exam.
The UGC-NET exam for the Kannada paper could not be held at some centres due to technical issues. Hence, the administrative body has decided to conduct the exams again for these candidates.
NET is conducted on behalf of the UGC for determining the eligibility of Indian nationals for the Eligibility of Assistant Professorship, Junior Research Fellowship or both, for Indian Universities and Colleges. It was earlier conducted by CBSE. From December 2018 onwards, it has been conducted by the NTA. It is conducted twice a year.
Source: The Indian Express and The Quint
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