NEET Rigging Racket Busted In Noida, 3 arrested

Noida: In a crackdown on examination malpractice, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has arrested three individuals from Noida’s Sector 3 for allegedly running a NEET UG paper-leaking racket. The accused were caught red-handed while attempting to facilitate medical admissions through fraudulent means and have been booked

The trio—identified as Vikram Kumar Shah, Dharampal Singh, and Aniket Kumar—had set up an elaborate network to target NEET aspirants and their families, offering guaranteed admissions in exchange for hefty sums. The STF also recovered fake identity documents, electronic gadgets, and other incriminating material from their possession.

As per the IANS report, the Special Task Force (STF) busted a gang accused of rigging the NEET UG and other competitive examinations, and arrested three individuals from Gautam Buddha Nagar district's Noida. The arrests took place in Sector 3, under the Phase-1 police station limits of Gautam Buddha Nagar district.

The accused are now booked under FIR No. 182/2025 at Phase-1 police station in Gautam Buddha Nagar, under sections 318, 319, 336, 337, 338, 340, and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Local police have initiated further legal proceedings.

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The STF has seized a significant amount of incriminating evidence from the accused, including six calling mobile phones, four personal phones, two encrypted Aadhaar cards, a candidate data sheet, a PAN card, a credit card, a voter ID, a passport, a cheque book, an Apple MacBook, and a Toyota Fortuner.

Acting on specific intelligence received on May 3, the STF Noida unit under the supervision of Additional SP Raj Kumar Mishra and Deputy SP Navendu Kumar raided the office of the gang located in Sector 3.

The tip-off revealed that members of the gang were contacting relatives of NEET UG candidates, offering guaranteed passing by leaking papers in exchange for large sums of money.

According to the STF, the accused were caught red-handed and immediately taken into custody. During interrogation, 30-year-old Vikram Kumar Shah revealed that he originally hailed from Darbhanga, Bihar and had gone to Vinayaka Mission University in Chennai in 2011 for a Biotechnology degree. There, he met co-accused Aniket Kumar, and the duo began arranging admissions at the university for a 30 per cent commission.

Post graduation, Shah moved to Delhi, where he met Dharampal Singh. Together, they formed a company named "Admission View" and began collecting data on MBBS aspirants. They allegedly contacted students' families, promising guaranteed admissions and demanded Rs 5 lakh per candidate, the STF said.

The gang advised candidates to fill in only those answers in the OMR sheet they were sure of and leave the rest blank. They would then arrange to replace the OMR sheets with ones filled in with correct answers. If the candidate secured admission, the gang kept the money; otherwise, they delayed refunds and fled if legal pressure mounted.

After several complaints surfaced, the gang rebranded in 2023 by forming another firm, "SHREYANVI EDU OPC PVT LTD," registered again in Noida Sector 3, and resumed the same fraudulent operations, targeting students ahead of the NEET UG 2025, the STF mentioned.

Further investigations are underway.

For the NEET 2025, over 20.8 lakh candidates appeared across 548 cities in India and 14 international centres.

Speaking to ANI, sources at the Ministry of Education informed that the nationwide test was conducted smoothly without any major issues or reports of malpractice.

"20.8 lakh candidates appeared in the exam. There is no doubt -- it happened smoothly," the source said, adding that only minor issues like late arrivals and some confusion over dress codes were reported. "No violations or use of unfair means have been reported so far," the source confirmed.

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