The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made two additional arrests on Tuesday, including a key accused who allegedly stole the paper from a National Testing Agency’s trunk in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, in the NEET paper leak investigation case.
The agency has arrested Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, who allegedly stole the NEET-UG paper from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh.
The CBI has also arrested one Raju Singh who allegedly helped Kumar in stealing the paper and passing them on to other gang members, officials said, adding that Singh was also arrested from Hazaribagh.
As per earlier reports, there were discrepancies in the trunk in which these question papers had arrived at Hazaribagh’s Oaisis School.
The premier investigations agency has made significant strides in the investigation and the number of accused arrested by them has gone up to 13. Sources within the agency told CNN News18 that they are close to arresting the main accused Sanjeev Mukhia in the matter.
What CNN New18 Found Earlier?
In the investigations done by CNN News18, it was discovered that the seals that were stuck behind one of the boxes, was broken and an envelope which had 24 question papers were taken out. A very precise and professional cut was made at the bottom of the envelope through which the paper was taken out. Pictures of the question paper were also taken and then were given to the solver gang.
NEET Paper Leak: FIRs Lodged, Arrests Made Till Now
The agency, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered six FIRs. The FIR from Bihar pertains to leakage of paper while the remaining from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are linked to impersonation of candidates and cheating.
The agency’s own FIR on a reference from the Union Education Ministry pertains to a “comprehensive investigation” into the alleged irregularities in the examination.
On June 27, the CBI made its first arrests in the NEET-UG paper leak case and detained two men from Bihar. The two accused, identified as Manish Prakash and Ashutosh Kumar, were arrested from Patna.
Reportedly, Ashutosh is accused of providing premises where NEET aspirants studied the leaked question paper, while Manish allegedly arranged the paper.
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued notices to private parties on a batch of pleas filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts on the NEET-UG row to the top court to avoid multiplicity of litigations.
Earlier, a vacation bench had on June 14 issued notices to the parties on similar pleas by the NTA.
The NEET-UG 2024 was conducted on May 5 for 23.33 lakh students at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas.
The results were released on June 4 but soon owing to a large number of toppers, reports of a paper leak surfaced on social media. The case is currently under investigation by the CBI.
Amidst the court proceedings on July 8, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud noted that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised and the extent of paper leak is important to decide whether the exam held on May 5 be cancelled or not.
The CJI also directed all counsels for petitioners who wish for a NEET UG 2024 re-test to file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages and highlighted that a retest would be the “last resort”. The CJI has now listed the matter for hearing on July 18.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
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