CBI arrests NEET-UG paper leak ‘mastermind’, 2 'solver' MBBS students

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday arrested one of the masterminds in the NEET-UG paper leak case and two MBBS students who acted as solvers, PTI reported quoting officials.

The two “solvers” arrested in the paper leak case have been identified as Kumar Manglam Bishnoi and Deepender Kumar, both students of Bharatpur Medical College.

The technical surveillance has confirmed the presence of Bishnoi, a second-year MBBS student, Sharma, a first-year medical student, in Hazaribagh on the day of the NEET-UG exam, officials said.

Bishnoi and Sharma were allegedly acting as "solvers" for the paper stolen by Pankaj Kumar, an engineer, who was arrested earlier, they said.

Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), allegedly stole the NEET-UG paper from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh.

Sashikant Paswan alias Sashi alias Pasu, a B.Tech (Electrical) passout from the NIT, Jamshedpur was acting in tandem with Kumar and Rockey, who was also arrested earlier.

The central probe agency has so far arrested persons in connection with the NEET-UG cases taken over by it.

On Friday, the CBI arrested a first-year MBBS student, Surabhi Kumari, of Ranchi's Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for allegedly being part of a 'solver module'. Kumari was taken into custody after two days of detailed questioning by the CBI, the officials said.

"The CBI team contacted the hospital management on Wednesday saying they wanted to question her in connection with the NEET paper leak. The management extended full cooperation to the team. On Thursday too, they grilled her and said she will be questioned further," RIMS PRO Rajiv Ranjan told PTI earlier in the day.

The reports of fresh arrests emerge hours after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the centre and city-wise results for NEET-UG following a Supreme Court order.

The top court is hearing several petitions about the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the medical entrance exam, including paper leak.

The 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.