The CBI has filed a report in a special court to close the case of leak of question papers of the 2024 UGC-NET on the darknet, prompting the government to cancel the exam last year.

The agency told a court that it did not find any evidence of leak of papers which was also allegedly sold on Telegram -- the cross media platform. It has informed the Union education ministry through a report that investigation did not yield any corroborative evidence to substantiate initial charges.

Now it’s up to the court to accept the closure report or direct CBI to conduct more probe to ascertain truth behind allegations.

More than 11 lakh candidates had registered for the exam to become eligible for junior research fellowship, appointment as assistant professors and PhD admissions in Indian universities and colleges.

The CBI found that a “doctored” screenshot of the “leaked” question paper for the June 18, 2024, exam was being circulated by a student to make some money, the officials said.

On the exam day, the paper was found doing the rounds on Telegram channels in the afternoon, before the second shift of UGC-NET, giving an impression that it was leaked and the person circulating it had access to it, they said.

The investigation found that the person who circulated the screenshot had doctored the image and its date and time stamp to show that he accessed the paper before the exam started, the officials said.

“The UGC received certain inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs on the examination. These inputs prima facie indicate that the integrity of the aforesaid examination may have been compromised,” the Ministry of Education had said after the cancellation of the examination.

The investigation was handed over to the CBI, which found that the purported screenshot of the paper was created by a school student using an app.

Published on January 30, 2025