An umbrella body of about 40 people’s science organisations on Friday condemned the National Testing Agency (NTA) for its refusal to acknowledge a "paper leak" in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Under Graduate (NEET-UG) and described the irregularities as a case of “organised loot”.

A day after NTA director-general Abhishek Singh reportedly told a parliamentary panel that leaks did not happen from its system, the All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN) issued a statement to say the country was witnessing a "devastating farce being played out on our youth".

“Recently, the NEET entrance examinations have been cancelled under a dark cloud of complaints of extensive ‘paper leaks’. The ongoing CBI investigations have revealed a sinister scenario of an organised network which sells question papers under the garb of coaching, ‘guess papers’ and ‘mock tests’. With surprising audacity, the director of the NTA continues to deny any ‘paper leak’; we might tend to agree, it’s certainly not an accidental leak, it’s a carefully organised paper loot propped by huge money,” said the statement issued by AIPSN general secretary Asha Mishra and its president Satyajit Rath.

The AIPSN called for the dismantling of the NTA, arguing that the body has proved “incapable of maintaining the integrity and sanctity of important examinations such as NEET UG and UGC-NET”.