NEET ‘leak’: Hazaribagh school could not unlock box with question papers, opened it with cutter

Digital locks have also been used in the previous NEET-UG exams.

The Hazaribagh school in Jharkhand, which is alleged to be the origin of the NEET-UG paper leak, said a digital lock on a box containing question papers did not open at the designated time on May 5.

The principal of the Hazaribagh school told Indian Express that the boxes had to be opened with a cutter. According to the report, one box comes with a manual lock while the other comes with a digital one. There is a key and cutter for the box with a manual lock. The one with the digital lock is supposed to unlock automatically 45 minutes before the examination. However, at Oasis School in Hazaribagh, this did not happen.

Ehsanul Haque, the school principal and the Hazaribagh district coordinator, approached the National Testing Agency (NTA) for suggestions. However, he was reportedly told “cutter se digital lock ko kaat do (cut the digital lock with the cutter)”.

Haque told The Indian Express that he conveyed this to the superintendents and observers at five examination centres, including Oasis School.

Imtiyaz Alam, the centre superintendent at Oasis School, and NTA’s observer Vishwa Ranjan corroborated this backed Haque’s claim.

“Digital locks were also used in the previous NEET-UG exams, and there was a beep that indicated they were open. This year we were surprised when they didn’t unlock. We alerted our city coordinator Ehsanul Haque, he contacted the NTA, and we were told that we should cut it using a cutter,” Ranjan told Indian Express.

According to NTA officials, if the digital lock doesn’t automatically unlock at the desired time, then it has to be opened with a cutter. “These are digital devices that can malfunction. It doesn’t necessarily mean these were tampered with,” said an NTA official.

Haque said he received an email at 1 am on May 5 informing about nine boxes with question papers kept in two designated banks. “At 7.30 am, five centre superintendents and five observers were handed over nine cardboard boxes, inside which were the aluminium boxes with question papers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alam said the boxes were being unpacked at 1.15 pm. “The first layer is cardboard, which is torn open by a sharp object. Inside that is an aluminium box containing two locks – digital and manual. Inside the aluminium box, there is another cardboard box containing a seven-layered plastic envelope, which finally contains the question papers. The entire unpacking process happens in front of officials and two students who are selected randomly,” he said.

A courier company appointed by the NTA took the OMR sheets in two separate aluminum boxes.

According to Alam, on June 21, officials of the Bihar economic offences unit came to investigate. The unit had found that the serial code found on the burnt remains of a leaked question paper in Bihar matched with the Oasis School examination centre in Hazaribagh. EOU officials took with them the two aluminium boxes which had the question papers.

“We were told by EOU officials that the stickers around the aluminium boxes were not uniform, and the patterns of latches also differed. Also, the seven-layered envelope had a breach at one end and appeared to have been cut,” Alam told Indian Express.