The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday made their first two arrests from Bihar in connection with the ongoing row over NEET-UG exam irregularities. Earlier Bihar police arrested 18 others in the same exam paper leak row.
The two accused -- Manish Kumar and Ashutosh Kumar -- reportedly provided shelter to NEET aspirants before their exam, where they were given the leaked question papers and answer keys.
Officials said that both of them were produced before a special court in Patna, following which they were sent to judicial custody. The CBI will now seek their remand to interrogate them, they added.
Ashutosh allegedly rented Patna's 'Learn Boys Hostel and Play School' from where the Economic Offense Unit of Bihar Unit recovered the half-burnt NEET UG 2024 question appers. The probe agency found that he was aware of the question papers being provided to the medical aspirants at the premises.
Meanwhile, Manish allegedly made deals with the aspirants who were ready to pay money for getting the question papers before hand. He brought these people to the hostel and gave them the questions and answer key papers.
The medical aspirants then stayed at the hostel and prepared for the national level medical entrance test, which was conducted on May 5.
So far, the federal probe agency has registered six FIRs in the NEET paper leak case.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has also decided to hand over the investigation of all the NEET scam-related matters to the central probe agency.
The Education Ministry had earlier declared that they handed over the the probe into alleged irregularities regarding the medical entrance exam NEET to the CBI seeking a thorough investigation.
This announcement came hours after the removal of National Testing Agency (NTA) Director General Subodh Singh. A seven-member panel headed by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan was also created for exam reforms.
"For transparency on the conduct of the examination process, it was decided after a review that the matter be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for comprehensive investigation," a senior official from the ministry had said.
The official said that the government aims to maintain the integrity of exams and safeguard the interests of the students. They also pressed on the severe consequences that will be faced by any person or group caught engaging in such discrepancies.
"The Ministry of Education has requested the CBI to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities, including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust, and destruction of evidence by candidates, institutes, and middlemen, including attempted irregularities," an official statement from the federal probe agency read.
"The Ministry has also requested CBI for investigation into the role of public servants, if any, connected with the conduct of the examination and also into the entire gamut of events and the larger conspiracy," it added.
Following this decision, CBI on Sunday registered an FIR in connection with the NEET UG 2024 case. The FIR was registered based on the complaint filed by the Education Ministry and was filed against unidentified persons.
The NEET UG 2024 examination was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres across 571 cities, including 14 abroad. Around 24 lakh medical aspirants appeared in the test.
