NEET-UG 2026: NTA claims viral answer sheets were fabricated, warns of criminal action

The National Testing Agency on Monday claimed that images of answer sheets from the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test that were widely shared on social media were “digitally fabricated”.

The NEET-UG exam for seats in medical colleges was conducted for a second time on June 21 after the NTA cancelled the original exam held on May 3 following allegations of a question paper leak.

The re-examination results were declared on July 16. Subsequently, some candidates alleged that the optical mark recognition answer sheets uploaded against their roll numbers did not belong to them, had been interchanged or showed fewer attempted answers than they had marked, The Indian Express reported.

Optical Mark Recognition is a system that reads answers marked by candidates by detecting filled bubbles or marks on an answer sheet.

The NTA said on Monday that it examined each representation individually and found that its official records remained consistent in every case reviewed so far.

It said genuine answer sheets held by the agency carried the correct roll number, booklet number, barcode, candidate details, signatures, thumb impression and invigilators’ signatures, and that the declared scores matched the official answer key and evaluation records.

The agency also issued case-by-case responses with respect to five candidates – Avaneesh Srivastava, Pratibha Trivedi, Abhay Yadav, Lakshya Singh and Arya Singh – whose allegations of discrepancies had been widely shared on social media.

It said the...

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