PATNA: Bihar Police sent notices on Saturday to students in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar to join the investigation into alleged malpractice in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-Undergraduate) and said they had evidence that the exam papers were leaked.
The police notices come amid nationwide protests and govt efforts to allay fears that NEET papers were leaked.
Economic Offences Unit officers have arrested 13 people, including four students, and sent notices to nine more candidates suspected of involvement in the alleged scam and of receiving question papers, along with the answers ahead of the May 5 exam.
The notices were served to them after details were acquired from National Testing Agency. Police said these students could help sleuths piece together the jigsaw puzzle.
Scores of students across the country are demanding re-examination despite repeated denials from the NTA and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan that the papers were leaked.
EOU DIG Manavjit Singh Dhillon said police had recovered a list of 13 people from a “safe house” at Ram Krishna Nagar, on Patna’s outskirts, where around 30 medical aspirants were summoned by people described by police as “exam mafia” to receive in advance the questions and answers against payment of lakhs of rupees.
“Four of them were arrested on May 5 from different exam centres of Patna after they took their NEET exam. For the remaining nine, we have got details from NTA on the basis of their roll code and have sent notices to these candidates to join our investigation from next week. Of these nine candidates, one each is from UP and Maharashtra, and seven from different districts of Bihar,” Dhillon said.
Dhillon claimed that four arrested candidates had “confessed” during interrogation that the examination questions were identical to those they had received at the “safe house” on May 4.
“After the results were out, we found that all four had passed,” one investigator said. After the 13 candidates entered the rented flat, their phones were taken away to stop them from contacting anyone or telling their friends about the questions. The mafia also dropped the students at their respective centres in their vehicles.
“The aspirants disclosed their parents had given Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh each to the mafia for the question papers.
Taaza Khabar 
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