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CBI questions Jharkhand school principal and bank officials in NEET case
Staff of a courier firm that transported question papers were also questioned; two of the accused are now in the custody of the CBI for interrogation; special court grants remand for three days
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team probing theNational Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) paper leak case on Wednesday reached Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh Oasis School over allegations of tampering of question papers.
The CBI is conducting a nationwide probe into alleged malpractices in medical entrance exam NEET-UG and has taken over cases probed by the police in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar.
An eight-member CBI team first visited the residence of Oasis School principal Ahsanul Haque and then took him to the school, which was one of the centres for the exam conducted on May 5.
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The Bihar Economic Offences Unit (EOU) had earlier said a partially burnt NEET question paper found at the Khemnichak play school in Patna matched the series of question papers sent to the examination centre at the Oasis School in Kallu Chowk, Hazaribagh.
Two days ago, Mr. Haque had told The Hindu that an envelope having the NEET question paper was tampered with and there was a “precise cut”. He also said that the digital lock on a box in which question papers were stored didn’t open by itself at 1:15 p.m. as expected and had to be opened using a cutter.
Preventing another NEET fiasco
After leaving the school, the CBI team split in two groups and visited a State Bank of India (SBI) branch and an office of the courier company Blue Dart. The office had delivered the question papers on May 3 to the bank using an e-rickshaw.
The CBI team questioned the bank manager and other employees responsible for safeguarding the question papers. The team also checked the place where the question papers were kept before being delivered to the school on May 5 at 8:30 a.m. The CBI team visited the bank twice.
The team also questioned the employees of the courier office. The manager of the outlet is said to be absconding.
Custody of accused
The special CBI court in Patna on Wednesday remanded two of the accused in the case, Baldev Kumar alias Chintu and Mukesh Kumar, to CBI custody for three days. Judicial Magistrate Harshvardhan Singh granted custody to the CBI after hearing the agency’s application.
On Tuesday, the CBI had submitted its first information report (FIR) in the special court on the basis of an FIR registered at Shastri Nagar police station in Patna.
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In the FIR registered by the CBI, eight persons are named as accused. The CBI had filed two applications in the special court on Tuesday. One application was for the appearance of the accused and the second was for remand to interrogate the accused.
According to the agency, Mr. Chintu had revealed the involvement of an organised inter-State gang. He was arrested from Jharkhand’s Deoghar and was a close aide of Sanjiv Mukhiya, key accused in the case and currently absconding. Mr. Chintu allegedly received a solved NEET question paper on his mobile in PDF format and print-outs of the paper were taken through a wi-fi-enabled printer and distributed among candidates at the play school.
Mr. Kumar is accused of picking up and dropping the candidates after they memorised the answers at the play school. Both Mr. Chintu and Mr. Mukesh are residents of Nalanda district.
Altogether 18 people have been arrested in the case – 13 from Bihar and five from Jharkhand.
Probe in Gujarat
A CBI team also visited two private schools in Gujarat’s Kheda and Panchmahal districts as part of its probe. The CBI team first visited Jay Jalaram International School on Sevaliya-Balasinor highway near Wanakbori thermal power plant in Kheda district to collect information about NEET as it was designated as one of the exam centres, officials said.
School owner Dixit Patel confirmed CBI personnel visited his school. “The CBI team visited those classrooms where candidates appeared for the NEET exam on May 5. They took photographs of the classrooms and checked the angle of CCTV cameras installed there,” Mr. Patel told reporters.
From Kheda, the CBI team visited Jay Jalaram School near Godhra town of Panchmahal district, which was also a centre for the test in the State. Both the schools, located 100 km apart, are owned by Mr. Patel.
A case was registered by the Godhra Police on May 8 against three persons under various Indian Penal Code Sections, including criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust, for allegedly trying to help 27 candidates clear the NEET-UG for a sum of ₹10 lakh each.
On June 23, the CBI filed a fresh FIR (first information report) against unidentified persons under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating), among others, amid countrywide protests and litigation by students for a probe into paper leak claims.
The next day, a CBI team reached Godhra to investigate the case of alleged irregularities.
The Gujarat Police have so far arrested five persons, including the principal and a teacher of a school in Godhra. The racket was unearthed after the Panchmahal Collector received a tip-off that some persons were involved in malpractice linked to the exam, as per the FIR registered on May 8 by the Godhra Police.
Since the tip-off was received in advance, authorities prevented any malpractice at the centre (Jay Jalaram School) and the exam was conducted without a hitch, the FIR said.
The arrested persons are physics teacher Tushar Bhatt, school principal Parshottam Sharma, Vadodara-based education consultant Parsuram Roy, his aide Vibhor Anand and alleged middleman Arif Vohra.
As per the FIR registered at the Godhra taluka police station on a complaint of the district education officer, ₹7 lakh in cash was recovered from Mr. Bhatt, who was working as a teacher at Jay Jalaram School and was appointed the deputy centre superintendent for NEET in the city.
Out of 27 students who had either paid in advance or agreed to pay money to Mr. Roy and others, only three were able to clear the exam, according to sources.
The accused told the candidates to solve questions they knew and leave the remaining blank, which would be filled by Mr. Bhatt when papers are collected after the exam, as per the FIR.
More than 24 lakh students had appeared for the NEET-UG 2024 across centres in 571 cities nationwide. Results were released on June 4.
(With PTI inputs)
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