The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Bihar police on Sunday arrested six more individuals in Deoghar, Jharkhand, extending the depth of the probe into the NEET-UG question paper leak case. So far, 19 people have been taken into custody in relation to the case.
Calls to scrap the medical entrance exam have been stronger every day amid widespread mass protests in India.
The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has decided to postpone the NEET-Post Graduate exams due to the controversy surrounding the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance (NEET)-Undergraduate exam 2024, according to a statement released on behalf of the Ministry of Health on Saturday. The NEET-PG exams were scheduled to be held on Sunday.
After the widespread cheating was discovered by the Bihar police on May 5, Deoghar SDPO Hrithik Srivastava stated the accused had been hiding in the house belonging to Jhunu Singh in the Devipur neighbourhood. They were taken to Patna on transit remand by the EOU after being picked up from the “safe house” close to AIIMS Deoghar.
The arrested have been identified as Paramjit Singh, alias Bittu, Baldev Kumar, alias Chintu, Prashant Kumar, alias Kaju, Ajit Kumar, Rajiv Kumar, alias Karu, and Pinku Kumar.
EOU DIG, Manavjit Singh Dhillon, is questioning them at EOU headquarters in Patna.
“If needed, we will check the possibility of brain-mapping and narco-analysis tests on some of the accused arrested so far. The Enforcement Directorate will also probe the money-laundering aspect under relevant sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),” an EOU officer said.
So far, investigations have shown that the person behind the paper leak operation could be Sanjiv Mukhiya, also known as Luta, a technical assistant at Noorsarai Horticulture College in Nalanda.
“The gang had been plotting this for several months, and it was a professor from Hazaribaghwho who sent the question papers to Sanjiv using WhatsApp. Later, with the help of medical students from Patna and Ranchi, the paper was solved,” a top official said.
After it was solved, Chintu of Karai Parsurai received it along with the answers. The investigating agency is now working to track down the professor.
Pintu of Hilsa, Nalanda, photocopied the test papers following Chintu’s instructions and sent them early on May 5 to about 30 aspirants residing at the “safe house,” which is now known to be the closed play school in the Khemnichak area of Patna.
The assessments of the three candidates who were jailed also indicate that they could only memorise questions and answers in one subject, as their percentile in that particular subject was higher than in other subjects.
In response to the reports that one of the five test centres in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, had leaked NEETUG papers, another team headed there.
Speaking to a media outlet, officer in charge Sandeep Kumar of Lohsinghna police station said the EOU was also tracking a courier through whom the NEET questions were given to a State Bank of India manager in Hazaribagh.
“The investigating team suspects foul play while taking the question paper to the bank’s chest before the exam,” he said. The team had also investigated the NEET exam city coordinator and was gathering scientific evidence.
In Ranchi, the team went to the office of a private courier firm in the Sadar area to verify whether the question papers had been couriered to different cities as well. On May 5, an anonymous tip from a whistleblower to the Patna police marked the beginning of an investigation that has since exposed a possible statewide fraud network.
