The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday brought the arrested accused in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-UG case to the special CBI court based in Bihar’s Patna. Soon, the accused will be presented before the court.
On Wednesday, the CBI nabbed the suspected key conspirator in connection with the irregularities in the NEET-UG case, according to an official. The suspected key conspirator, identified as Aman Singh, was arrested in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
This was the seventh arrest made by the central agency in connection with the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exams 2024. Earlier, the CBI arrested the owner of a private school from Gujarat’s Godhra for allegedly soliciting money from candidates in exchange for enhancing their scores.
The CBI also arrested a marketing professional with a Hindi media organization. This came after the central agency, last Friday, nabbed two accused, Dr. Ehsaan Ul Haq and Imtiaz Alam, who were working as the principal and the vice principal of Oasis School in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh. Haq was appointed the city coordinator for the NEET-UG exam 2024. These arrests followed two more arrests made by the central agency in Patna.
A senior CBI official confirmed the arrest of two people identified as Manish Prakash and Ashutosh, who were found to be operating from Patna. According to the official, Ashutosh was arranging safe house premises for the students, while Manish transported the candidates to a school to ‘prepare’ them for the exam. “Manish Prakash transported the students in his car, while the students were accommodated in Ashutosh’s house,” the CBI officer pointed out.
Earlier last month, the central government entrusted the CBI with the investigation into the irregularities in the NEET-UG case. Accordingly, the CBI registered multiple FIRs related to reported paper leaks, impersonation of candidates, and cheating.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducted the NEET-UG examination, is facing criticism over alleged irregularities. This prompted a series of protests across the country, with demonstrators and political parties demanding the disbandment of the NTA.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on July 8 a batch of pleas alleging paper leaks and irregularities in the NEET-UG exam. According to the cause list for July 8 uploaded on the top court’s website, the pleas are listed before a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. The apex court had earlier sought a response from the NTA on pleas seeking a fresh NEET-UG 2024 examination amid allegations of a paper leak and stated that the “sanctity” of the exam had been affected and required an answer from the testing agency.
The apex court had told the National Testing Agency (NTA) that any negligence in conducting the NEET-UG 2024 exam should be dealt with thoroughly. The Centre and the NTA had, on June 13, informed the apex court that they had canceled the grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates and given them the option to either take a re-test on June 23 or forgo the compensatory marks awarded for the loss of time. A total of 813 students appeared for the retest held on June 23 across seven centers.