The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) detained four medical students from AIIMS Patna on Wednesday (July 17) in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case, sources said. Among the detainees, three are third-year students and one is a second-year student. The development has been confirmed by Patna’s AIIMS Director in Bihar, sources said. The CBI is currently interrogating all the detainees and their rooms have also been sealed by the probe agency, they added. The detained students have been identified as Chandan Kumar (3rd year), Rahul Kumar (3rd year), Karan Jain (3rd year), and Kumar Shanu (2nd year).
This comes after the CBI arrested two more persons including a key accused in the NEET-UG paper leak case who allegedly stole the paper from a National Testing Agency’s trunk in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand on Wednesday (July 17), as per the news agency PTI. With the two arrests, the total number of persons arrested in connection with cases pertaining to leakage, impersonation and other irregularities in the medical entrance exam has now reached 14, officials said.
The agency has arrested Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, who allegedly stole the NEET-UG paper from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh, the officials said. Kumar, a resident of Bokaro, was arrested from Patna, they said. The CBI has also arrested one Raju Singh from Hazaribagh who allegedly helped Kumar in stealing the paper, they said. Singh was arrested after detailed questioning, the officials said, adding the agency also “temporarily sealed” one Raj Guest House in Hazaribagh in connection with the case.
CBI probing irregularities in NEET-UG exam
It is pertinent to mention here that the CBI, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered six FIRs. The FIR from Bihar pertains to the leakage of paper while the remaining from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are linked to the impersonation of candidates and cheating. The agency’s own FIR on a reference from the Union Education Ministry pertains to a “comprehensive investigation” into the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024. NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions. This year, the exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the test.