Irregularities in NEET 2024: CBI registers fresh case against 2nd-year Medical student who appeared as proxy candidate

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was tasked with investigating the irregularities in the conduct of the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 examination, has registered a fresh case in this connection, PTI has reported.

CBI has booked a woman medical student, who was caught taking the UG medical entrance examination for an aspirant in Navi Mumbai, officials said on Saturday. The Bureau took over the investigation from the Maharashtra Police on the state government's recommendation.

Nishika Premprakash Yadav, a second-year medical student, allegedly appeared at the DY Patil (deemed to be) University centre in Navi Mumbai on May 5 on behalf of one Mayuri Manohar Patil, the officials said.

Yadav was caught after an alert was issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducted the examination for admissions to undergraduate medical courses.

Also Read: NEET 2024 paper leak row: NTA debars 17 students from Bihar, 30 from Gujarat

The alert termed Patil to be a "suspicious" candidate following which Yadav, who had posed as the aspirant, was asked to provide her biometric data to be matched with her Aadhar, the officials said.

Yadav's fingerprints did not match and she admitted that she was a second-year medical student at Jawahar Medical College, they added.

This year's NEET-UG 2024 examination, held on May 5, 2024, was mired in controversies as there were allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the test including a potential leak of the exam paper.

Medical Dialogues had previously reported how responding to the demands of the various medical aspirants who called out the alleged irregularities and demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter, the Ministry of Education had entrusted the matter of alleged irregularities in NEET (UG) Examination 2024 to CBI for the comprehensive investigation.

The issue of NEET UG malpractices also reached the Supreme Court, where pleas were filed by the aspirants seeking a re-conduct of NEET UG 2024 exam. Back then, the Union Governmentg had filed a High-Level Committee comprising of 7 expert members amid the allegations of irregularities in the test.

Although the top court bench had dismissed the pleas seeking NEET re-exam observing that there was no systemic breach in the exam, the court had also taken cognisance of the multiple occurrences of flip-flops and lapses in the conduct of the exam and issued some directions to the expert committee.

Also Read: NEET Expert Panel Report Due: Supreme Court Extends Deadline till November 4