NEET-UG paper leak: CBI arrests four MBBS students of Patna AIIMS

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July 18 arrested four undergraduate students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case.

All four are students of the institute’s 2021 MBBS batch and allegedly helped in solving the leaked question paper.

Sources in the CBI said that the NEET question paper stolen from a trunk belonging to the National Testing Agency (NTA) by Pankaj Kumar — who was arrested on Tuesday — was given to a group of “solvers” to get the answers. The CBI believes that the four students arrested from Patna AIIMS were among the “solvers”.

On Wednesday, the CBI team reached the Patna AIIMS campus and detained three students, after which a fourth student came forward to surrender at the CBI office. On Thursday, they were arrested and produced before the Special CBI Court, which remanded them to four days’ custody.

Sources said that the names of the four students came up during the interrogation of Rakesh Ranjan alias Rocky, a key accused in the case.

Rocky allegedly arranged for the students to solve the NEET paper and is also believed to be one of the trusted aides of Sanjeev Mukhiya, the alleged kingpin in the case. It was Rocky who had arranged MBBS students from Patna and Ranchi to solve the question paper, CBI sources said.

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The CBI had arrested two accused on Tuesday — Pankaj and Raju Singh. While Pankaj, a native of Jharkhand’s Bokaro, was arrested in Patna on the charge of stealing the question paper, Singh is accused of helping him in the illegal act. On Wednesday, the Special Court in Patna sent both to CBI remand for 14 days.

G.K Pal, Executive Director of Patna AIIMS, said a senior CBI officer had earlier shared the names, photographs and mobile numbers of all four students before taking them away from the campus.

They were identified as Chandan Singh of Bihar’s Siwan district, who was the first to be detained; Kumar Shanu of Patna and Rahul Anand of Dhanbad district in Jharkhand, who were taken into custody in the evening; and Karan Jain of Araria district of Bihar, who surrendered at the CBI office. While Jain is a second-year MBBS student, the others are third-year students, Dr. Pal said.

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Asked if the CBI took away any material from the rooms of the four students, Dr. Pal said, “The CBI officials have asked us not to touch their diary, notebook, laptop or mobile. We have sealed the room as of now and in front of me, the CBI officials will open the rooms and take the material they want. The four students have not returned yet from CBI custody and we are just cooperating with the CBI.”