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A Delhi court has pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation for closing its probe into the 2024 UGC-NET paper leak case despite recording that an accused had allegedly collected money from candidates by promising leaked question papers.

The development comes amid a nationwide controversy over the cancellation of this year’s NEET-UG examination following allegations of paper leaks and malpractice.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Neetu Nagar at Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Friday sought a written explanation from the CBI over the closure report filed in January 2025.

In an order dated 15 May, the court pointed to paragraph 16.30 of the agency’s closure report, which stated that accused Nikhil Soni had allegedly “collected money from the aspirants of the UGC-NET 2024 by luring them on pretext of giving/leaking the exam paper”.

“It is manifest that crime has been committed as per the contents of para 16.30 but still the investigating officer has ignored the same and filed a closure report for reasons best known to him,” the judge observed.

Following the court’s remarks, the investigating officer sought time to submit a written explanation. The matter has now been listed for hearing on 21 May.

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The UGC-NET examination held on 18 June 2024 for more than nine lakh candidates across 317 cities was cancelled by the Centre a day later after inputs from the Ministry of Home Affairs suggested that the integrity of the examination “may have been compromised”.

The alleged evidence involved screenshots purportedly showing the question paper circulating on Telegram before the examination.

The CBI, which took over the investigation on 23 June 2024, later concluded that there was no actual paper leak.

In its closure report filed earlier this year, the agency claimed forensic analysis showed the screenshots had been digitally manipulated by a school student using a mobile application to falsely create the impression that the paper had been leaked before the exam.

The agency said its findings were based on analysis of digital trails and Telegram messages linked to claims of the leak.

The court’s observations have now reignited scrutiny over the handling of major examination leak cases at a time when the Centre is facing mounting criticism over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations.

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