Patna paper ‘leak’ beneficiary with 609 score has NEET rank of 71,000

NEW DELHI: If the welter of claims and counter-claims over alleged paper leak in the NEET-UG was not enough, this is going to compound the chaos further. Three of the alleged beneficiaries of the paper leak at a Patna centre for the medical test failed to muster the qualifying score.

The other nine alleged beneficiaries, some with scores of 500, 400, 300, 200 and 185 out of 720, would be lucky to get into good private medical colleges which charge exorbitantly high fees, not an enviable prospect for parents who shell out loads of money to access "leaked papers" and arrange "solvers" who write the exam for their wards.Even the best performer with 609 marks is ranked 71,000 in the merit list and would not get into any govt medical college which together account for a little over 56,000 seats.

Education ministry Wednesday sought a report from Bihar Police's economic offences unit on alleged irregularities in Patna. Bihar Police's claim that it found signs "suggestive" of paper leak, led the ministry to promise a fresh look into the integrity of the exam. Its claim is based on the statement of a aspirant Ayush Raj, who said the paper he got was the same that had been "leaked" to him a day in advance. Intriguingly, Ayush finished behind at least 6 lakh of the 24 lakh candidates.