Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi meets the family members of Pradeep Meghwal, who allegedly died by suicide over the NEET paper leak issue, in Rajasthan. (@RahulGandhi/X via PTI Photo)Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday demanded an independent judicial inquiry and the immediate constitution of a Special Investigation Team to investigate what he alleged was “massive tampering” in the CBSE Class XII exam results. Rejecting Gandhi’s allegations, CBSE said they were “erroneous, misleading, and not based on facts”.In a post on X, the senior Congress leader alleged that the Board chose a company that “had already pulled off the same deed in Telangana in 2019” under a different name.“The company Coempt (Edu Teck), which was handed this responsibility (on-screen marking), had already pulled off the same deed in Telangana in 2019 under the name Globarena. Name changed — but the intent the same, the nature the same. Everyone knew the history, yet the contract was still awarded… This isn’t a mistake—it’s a deliberate conspiracy,” Gandhi wrote.He asked why the contract was given to the company, “on whose orders”, “which rules were bypassed to award this contract”, “why weren’t background checks done”, and “what is the connection between Coempt’s management and the (Narendra) Modi government”.CBSE introduced the on-screen marking (OSM) system for Class 12 exams this year. Under the system, answer books were scanned and then marked digitally on a portal by evaluators.The Board issued a statement confirming that the contract was awarded to Coempt Edu Teck, Hyderabad, but said: “CBSE has followed the General Financial Rules protocols scrupulously in the awarding of the contract to the agency. CBSE floated the RFP ( Request for Proposal) for digital evaluation of answer books for board exams 2026 on Central Public Procurement portal on 28.08.2025 and awarded the contract to the qualified bidder.”Hitting back, Gandhi said, “A denial is not an answer. Why are the Education Minister and CBSE unable to answer the four simple questions I have asked? The future of 18.5 lakh students have been put in jeopardy. They deserve the truth.”Story continues below this adPressing for an independent judicial inquiry and the immediate constitution of an SIT to bring “the real culprits of this entire scam to light”, the LoP also issued an assurance to the country’s Gen Z population.“CBSE’s Gen Z comrades — your hard work, your future, no one will be able to steal it. We will dig to the root of this conspiracy and uproot this corruption once and for all,” he said.The Indian Express had reported in 2019 that in that year’s Telangana Intermediate Board Examination, over 3 lakh out of the 9 lakh students who appeared for the Class 12 exams were marked as failed, and a committee constituted by the state government to look into the issue had said the evaluators were under duress to complete the job quickly, which may have led to discrepancies in the results.The Indian Express had also reported then that the committee had blamed Globarena Technologies for “minor technical mistakes’’. The company was involved then in the processing of results, and digitisation of marks.Story continues below this adMeanwhile, it is learnt that aspects like blurred pages and re-scanning of answer books will be covered in the penalty clause in the company’s contract with CBSE.The Board expects to be able to make the portal for verification and re-evaluation available this week, after all scanned copies of answer books that have been applied for so far are sent by Wednesday night or early Thursday.NEET leak rowIn a related development, Rahul Gandhi sought to up the political ante over the NEET paper leak row after meeting a group of aspirants and the family of one examinee, who died by suicide, demanding accountability from the NDA government over the negative impact the leak had had on lakhs of youths across the country.“Today, I met the family of the brilliant student Pradeep Meghwal, who was so devastated by the NEET paper leak that he took his own life. Their pain cannot be contained in words. A mother and father have lost their son, and they were guilty of nothing,” he said.Story continues below this ad“…When a paper leak happens, it’s not just one exam that breaks — it’s a child’s dream, and an entire family that shatters. Pradeep’s death was not suicide — it was the consequence of a broken, corrupt system. Those who handed the examination system over to mafias, and who are still clinging to their chairs today — the Modi-Shah duo is accountable to this family,” he said.