Patna: Patna Police have arrested 14 people in connection with an alleged paper leak of NEET-UG 2024, which was conducted yesterday.
Among the accused, some were taking the exam on behalf of valid candidates while many had allegedly been given question papers prior to the exam. An FIR has been registered in this connection at Shastri Nagar police station.
According to police, a paper leak gang allegedly took Rs 20 lakh from many candidates and then accommodated them in lodges of Patna where they were provided question papers claiming to be that of NEET-UG for memorising. Police got a tip off a day before the examination and raided many lodges in the city on Monday morning. Some question papers were also found in some of the lodges.
SSP Rajeev Mishra said, "Investigations are underway so we can't tell whether the paper has actually been leaked or not. Many names have surfaced and candidates appearing for the exam on behalf of others have also been caught."
Although the National Testing Agency has said that question papers were allowed to be taken out of the examination hall only after completion of the exam at 5:20 pm, some students had allegedly circulated it online before 4:00 pm.
"More than 50 people from across the country have been arrested on charges of malpractice in NEET-UG 2024. Among the accused include many MBBS students. The Central investigation agency has been given the responsibility of investigating the matter," Sadhna Parashar, director, NTA said. The accused were picked from various areas in Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
Police said four accused, including Sikandar Yadav, who has already been in jail in a separate paper leak case, were found with NEET-UG question papers. They had engaged experts to appear on behalf of valid candidates at many centres in Patna. These experts were given Rs 5 lakh each by the gang, police said.
Seven accused were caught in Ranchi during biometric verification. A fake candidate named Sonu Kumar Singh had come to appear at the exam in place of a student named Abhishek Raj. Sonu is an MBBS student of NMCH, Patna.
On Sunday, the exam was conducted across 571 cities in India and in 14 cities abroad, wherein a total of 23,818,33 candidates appeared this time.
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