Mastermind and 2 Medical Students Arrested as ‘Solvers’ in NEET Fraud Case
New Delhi: On Saturday, the CBI arrested a B.Tech graduate from NIT-Jamshedpur who is one of the main conspirators in the NEET-UG paper leak case. They have also arrested two MBBS students who are accused of solving the exam papers for money, officials said.
He said the agency has so far arrested a total of 21 people in connection with six cases of alleged irregularities in the medical entrance examination.
Two MBBS students were arrested on Saturday. Kumar Mangalam Bishnoi, a second-year student, and Dipendra Sharma, a first-year student, are from a medical college in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. They were caught solving exam papers stolen from a trunk of the National Testing Agency in Hazaribagh by an engineer named Pankaj Kumar.
Both the “solvers” were in Hazaribagh on May 5, the day the NEET-UG exam was held across the country.
Sources say that these two men were part of a solver module in which five MBBS students have already been arrested. According to sources, the gang provided answers to NEET UG aspirants, which they purchased from them.
The third man arrested on Saturday was Shashikant Paswan, also known as Shashi or Pasu. He has a B.Tech degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur. He was working in collaboration with Kumar and Rocky, who were already arrested, officials said.
The agency claimed that Paswan is a key leader and mastermind behind the paper leak case.
CBI took over the paper leak case from Bihar Police.
Read Also: Bangladesh Police Get ‘Shoot-On-Sight’ Orders During National Curfew
The CBI has arrested Pankaj Kumar who stole the paper and Raju Singh who helped him. The main mastermind Rocky has also been arrested.
On Thursday, the police arrested Surendra Sharma, who had assisted Kumar in Hazaribagh.
The central probe agency, which is probing suspected irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered six FIRs. One FIR in Bihar is about the paper leak, while the others in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra relate to cheating and candidates appearing in place of others.
The FIR, registered by the agency based on a reference from the Union Education Ministry, is for in-depth investigation into suspected problems in the NEET-UG 2024 exam.
NEET-UG, conducted by the NTA, is an entrance exam for MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in both government and private institutions. This year, the exam was held on May 5 at 4,750 centers in 571 cities, including 14 international locations. Over 23 lakh candidates appeared for the exam.
Join YouTube channel: weekly wakeup
