New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has taken up the probe into alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG, made its first arrests on Thursday, June 27, by nabbing two persons from Patna.
According to CBI officials, the arrested persons – Manish Prakash and Ashutosh Kumar – allegedly housed NEET aspirants at a school in Patna a day before the exam on May 4 and provided them with leaked question paper. The examinees were then made to memorise the answers before they appeared for the exam on May 5.
Prakash’s wife Archana told the Indian Express, “The CBI called me around 1:30 pm to say that my husband has been arrested. He is a social worker who would often help people with making stay arrangements for students. I had heard someone asking him on the phone to make arrangements for four to five students. We had no idea about the enormity of trouble he has now landed in.”
On the other hand, the central probe agency had tried to track the prime accused Sanjiv Mukhiya on Wednesday, but to no avail. Mukhiya is absconding from his village in Nalanda. The probe agency suspects that he may have fled to Nepal.
The CBI is said to have received more information on another accused, Sikandar Yadavendu, who has already been arrested by the Bihar Police. Yadavendu had allegedly introduced the four examinees to ‘setters’ Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand, the IE report said.
The CBI has registered six FIRs in the NEET paper leak case. The first CBI FIR was registered on June 23, a day after the Union education ministry announced it would hand over the probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam to the Central agency.
Following the announcement of a CBI probe, the Bihar and Gujarat governments issued notifications to transfer their local NEET-UG “paper leak” cases to the central agency.
This year’s NEET-UG exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. Over 23 lakh candidates appeared for the test.
Following the declaration of results on June 4, there have been protests across the country over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam.
