NEET paper leak case: Delhi, Mumbai crime branches arrest 10 medical students of Jhalawar Medical College from Rajasthan for interrogation

Kota: In the latest update regarding the NEET UG 2024 paper leak controversy, the Crime branches Delhi and Mumbai arrested 10 medical students from the 2019-2022 batch from Jhalawar Government Medical College in Rajasthan for interrogation in connection with this case.

Among the 10 detained students, eight were granted bail by the court, while two remained in police custody for interrogation. They have been arrested after their names surfaced in the case. The crime branch took two medical students into custody and transported them to Mumbai on Friday for questioning and they have not yet returned to the college.

Earlier in May, the Delhi Police questioned eight of the ten medical students, while the Mumbai police interrogated the remaining two on June 13. After the interrogation, all of them were released.

Also read- CBI Makes First Arrests In NEET Paper Leak Case, 2 Men Nabbed From Patna

Confirming the recent arrest of the 10 students, the Dean of Jhalawar Medical College Dr Subhash Chandra Jain told ETV Bharat, "The police of Delhi and Mumbai visited the Jhalawar Medical College recently in connection with the probe into the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG exam and detained 10 students."

Speaking to TOI, Dr Subash Chandra Jain said "Mumbai police sought information on and documents of the duo through an email communication on May 11. On June 13, an officer arrived with a letter of authority and inquired about the two students, one of them a woman and a resident of the campus hostel."

"After five or six hours of questioning on the same day, Mumbai police informed the college authorities that they would take the students to Mumbai. The authorities, thereafter, reported the matter to local police," Dr Jain said.

"There had been no further communication from Mumbai police about the two students. They could still be under the custody of Mumbai police, as they had not returned to college till date." Dr Jain added. 

Jhalawar Superintendent of Police Richa Tomar told TOI "The district police were not aware of any arrest or detention from the medical college last month. After media enquiries, we sent a team to the college on Friday and were told that a Mumbai police team had visited the institute and taken the two students with them."

Principal and Vice-principal of Oasis School arrested

The CBI on Friday arrested the principal and vice principal of a school in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case.

As per PTI reports, Ehsanul Haque, the principal of Oasis School, was made the city coordinator of Hazaribagh for the medical entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5, officials said.

Vice Principal Imtiaz Alam was designated as the NTA's observer and the centre coordinator at the Oasis School, officials said, adding the CBI is also questioning five more people from the district in connection with the paper leak case.

The federal probe agency arrested Haque and Alam after detailed questioning, they said.

Both the accused came under scanner during a probe by the Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit (EOU) which was investigating the case earlier. The team had found burnt question papers of NEET-UG during a raid at a hideout of the solver gang, officials said.

In a statement, the EOU had claimed the "leaked" NEET-UG question paper was allegedly obtained from the Oasis School in Hazaribagh by the notorious Sanjeev Kumar alias Lutan Mukhiya gang.

It had said the investigators had matched a partially burnt question paper found from the Patna safe house with the reference question paper provided by the NTA, confirming the leak's origin. However, it could not clearly establish who was behind the alleged paper leak, officials said.

According to them, the probe had also shown that laid down guidelines for opening the question paper boxes were not properly followed by the authorities in Hazaribagh.

In media interviews, Haque has maintained that the box carrying the question papers could not be opened because its digital lock, which was supposed to unlock automatically, had malfunctioned. Following this, he contacted the NTA, which asked him to use a cutter to open the box, Haque has claimed.

The boxes carrying question papers have two locks -- a manual one that must be opened with a key and cutter and a digital lock that opens with a beep sound 45 minutes before the examination.

The CBI has registered six FIRs in the NEET-UG paper leak case which included its own FIR on a reference from the Union Education Ministry and five from the states where it took over investigation. The probe agency has taken over one case each in Bihar and Gujarat and three cases in Rajasthan.

On Thursday, CBI made its first arrests in the NEET-UG paper leak case, taking two people in custody in Patna while three candidates in Gujarat who had allegedly solicited help to clear the exam recorded their statements with the probe agency.

Protest against NTA continues

The agitation against alleged irregularities in NEET-UG, PG and UGC-NET continued on Friday, with protests by several student groups entering the third day of their indefinite strike here at Jantar Mantar. Left-backed student outfit All India Student Association (AISA) and Delhi University's Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), along with various other groups gathered, at Jantar Mantar to protest against the alleged rigging in the exams held by the National Testing Agency.

The demands of the student groups, who are protesting under the banner "India against NTA", include the scrapping of the National Testing Agency and resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the issue, among others.

On Thursday, the students including Congress' youth wing IYC held a massive demonstration at Jantar Mantar leading to the police resorting to lathicharge to disburse the crowd, visuals from the protest site showed.

In a separate protest, Congress' student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI) barged into the NTA headquarters in Okhla and locked the entrance of the testing agency's office with an iron lock and chain.

The police have registered a case against NSUI national president Varun Choudhary under sections 186 (obstructing public servant), 353 (assaulting public servant), 452 (trespassing), 342/34 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code for creating ruckus at the NTA office, PTI reports. 

About 60 students including members of the AISA and KYS were detained by the police from Jantar Mantar during the protest.

On Wednesday, the students started their protest at Jantar Mantar and were forced to disburse from the protest site after 5 pm. They were detained and taken to different police stations for attempting to stage their sit-in for the entire night.

This year's NEET UG 2024 exam was mired in controversies after a paper leak scam came to the light. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that around 13 people, including four examinees and their family members, were arrested in Bihar for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. Patna police sources had previously claimed that the NEET-UG question papers along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024.

Then, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, which took over the investigation, revealed that the brokers involved in the NEET paper leak scam took between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh from each of the medical aspirants in exchange for giving them the question paper of the NEET UG 2024 question paper ahead of the examination.

Multiple pleas have been filed before the High Courts and the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the alleged paper leak scam. Some of the pleas demanded the scrapping of the NEET UG 2024 exam and holding a retest. Meanwhile, during the case proceedings, NTA earlier decided to withdraw the grace marks awarded to 1563 candidates and hold an optional retest for those candidates. Those who did not opt for the retest were allowed to retain their original marks, without the grace marks.

The matter is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Central Government on June 22, 2024, handed over the charge of investigating in the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG 2024 examination to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"Certain cases of alleged irregularities / cheating / impersonation / malpractices have been reported. For transparency on the conduct of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India after a review has decided to entrust the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a comprehensive investigation," the Ministry of Education stated in a release.

Also read- 'Will Take Strictest Action, CBI Going To Catch Everyone', Assures Union Education Minister Over NEET Controversy