NEET Candidates paid up to Rs 50 lakhs for getting Question Papers in Advance: Bihar EOU
Patna: 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 of giving them the question paper of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 ahead of the examination on May 5th, 2024, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police has revealed.
EOU has seized several documents, including bank cheques, roll codes of candidates and other papers from the flats of Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand, who were arrested by the Patna Police on May 5.
Investigation into the "paper leak" was handed over to the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Bihar Police on Friday. An 8-member SIT has been constituted to investigate the alleged paper leak scam of NEET UG. Confirming this, the Additional Director General of EoU, NH Khan informed HT that the unit took up the case after it was revealed that organized gangs, having a history, were involved in the paper leak scandal.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that Patna police sources had earlier claimed that the question papers of the NEET-UG exam along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024. Earlier, 13 people, including four examinees and their family members were arrested for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. One of the arrested accused is also involved in the Bihar Public Service Commission's Teachers Recruitment Exam (TRE)-3.
EOU had earlier mentioned in a release that as per the investigation, the question papers of NEET-UG and their answers were provided to around 35 aspirants before the May 5 exam.
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, during the interrogation, the arrested aspirants informed the police that around 35 medical aspirants were taken to the Learn Boys Hostel at Ram Krishna Nagar. Commenting on the matter, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), EOU, Manavjit Singh Dhillon told the Daily, "The aspirants confessed that the NEET question paper was similar to the one they received from the broker, a day before the exam."
"We will contact the National Testing Agency, which conducted the NEET, to provide the details of those students whose roll codes we have got from the flat of the accused. We are verifying all the details," Dhillon further mentioned.
The probe revealed that the accused Amit Anand runs an education consultancy firm and promises the examinees to help in competitive exams. They approach the candidates and their parents by creating groups on messaging applications. He was alleged in contact with broker Sikander Yadavendu, who is a junior engineer in Danapur Nagar Parishad, and was arrested by the Police before the exam. Later, the accused burned the question papers at the rented flat at Ram Krishna Nagar.
In this regard, the DIG told the Daily, "The aspirants told police that after the accused took them to rented flat, their cellphones were taken so that they cannot contact anyone or tell their friends about the questions. They also dropped the students at their examination centres on their vehicles. We have got the contact number of one of the main accused from the cellphones of the aspirants. He was the one who rented the flat at Ram Krishna Nagar and contacted the aspirants to reach the location. Raids are on to arrest him."
He further noted that the modus operandi of the alleged paper leak scam of NEET was similar to that of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Teacher Recruitment Exam (TRE)-3.0 paper leak case.
Meanwhile, commenting on the issue, the Additional Director General of EoU, NH Khan told the Hindustan Times, "The probe unit during the investigation found that the gang members hired Learn Boys Hostel and Learn Play School at Khemnichak under Ram Krishna Nagar police station of the state capital to solve the answer paper for two dozen aspirants. When police raided the place, they seized burnt question papers and sent them for forensic examination."
He further mentioned that the police also recovered admit cards, post-dated cheques, and educational certificates from the accused who were arrested. All the 13 arrested individuals have been sent to judicial custody under sections 407/408/409 and 120b.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Bihar Police had arrested more than two dozen individuals, including 14 impersonators and candidates for cheating in the NEET UG 2024 exam. Among those arrested, an FIR was registered against 14 people, who were accused of impersonating registered candidates during the examination. During the interrogation, the accused known as "solvers" had revealed that Rs 5-10 lakh each was given to several centres by the gang members.
