NTA Website Hacked Amid NEET-NET Irregularities Row? Here’s What Officials Say

NEET-NET Row: The official website of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is under fire due to a raging controversy over alleged irregularities and paper leaks in the NEET-UG and the UGC-NET competitive exams, was purportedly “hacked” reports said on Sunday.
However, the country’s premier testing agency, which conducts the NEET, UGC-NET, CUET and JEE (Main) competitive exams, refuted the reports, stating that its official website as well as all of its other web portals, are fully secure and any reports claiming that these have been compromised and hacked are “wrong and misleading”.
“NTA website and all its web portals are fully secure. Any information that they have been compromised and hacked is wrong and misleading,” officials said Sunday.
The NTA’s clarification comes amid a massive row over alleged irregularities in competitive exams, including the NEET-UG and the UGC-NET which prompted the Union Education Ministry on Saturday to set up a seven-member panel to review the testing agency’s functioning, recommend exam reforms and ensure data security.
CBI takes over NEET-UG irregularities case, files FIR
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the CBI took over the probe in the alleged irregularities in May 5 NEET-UG medical entrance exam and filed an FIR in the matter on a reference from the Union education ministry, amid countrywide protests and litigation by students for a probe into paper leak claims.
According to officials, the ministry alleged in a complaint, now part of the FIR, to the agency that “certain isolated incidents” occurred in a few states during the conduct of the examination.
Giving top priority to the case, the CBI has formed special teams that are en route to Godhra and Patna, where cases of question paper leaks have been registered by police, they said, adding that the central agency plans to take over the investigation of these cases registered by the police in Gujarat and Bihar.
“Steps are being taken to take over cases registered by state police,” an official said.
The CBI action came a day after the ministry announced it would hand over the probe into the alleged irregularities to the central agency, a demand raised by a section of protesting students.
“The ministry of education has requested the CBI to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities, including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust and destruction of evidence by candidates, institutes and middlemen,” a CBI spokesperson said.
(With PTI inputs)