NEW DELHI: Separate teams of the CBI on Monday reached Patna and Godhra for investigating alleged irregularities in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024.
Officials of the Economic Offences Unit of the Bihar police, who had been investigating the paper leak case till now, said the CBI would question those involved in the process of printing of question papers and their transportation to different centres nationwide.
“The chain of custody, right from the printing of question papers to transportation and security till the papers arrive at the centres, is very important in this case. We have questioned officials of SBI and Blue Dart courier service. Senior bureaucrats might also be questioned by the CBI,” an official of the EOU said. The Bihar police have so far arrested 19 persons in the case. “The accused will be interrogated by the CBI and might be taken to Delhi,” the official said.
The evidence collected by the EOU in the last one month pieces of a burnt question paper, mobile phones of those arrested, SIM cards, laptops, post-dated cheques and reference questions papers provided by the NTA was handed over to the CBI. The CBI team visited Shashtri Nagar police station in Patna where the first FIR regarding irregularities in the exam was registered on May 4.
A disproportionate assets case will be registered against accused Sikander Prasad Yadvendu, a junior engineer in Danapur Town Council. He is one of the prime suspects in the case. In Gujarat’s Panchmahal district, a case was registered on May 8 against certain individuals for allegedly trying to help 27 candidates clear NEET in lieu of Rs 10 lakh each.
The Gujarat police have so far arrested five persons, including the principal and teacher of a school in Godhra. The Rajasthan police were also probing a case wherein a 20-year-old student allegedly paid a proxy candidate to appear in the exam on her behalf in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. Officials, meanwhile said the CBI would utilise data collected during its probe into previous scams to establish nexus in the paper leak. They said a database of more than 1,000 names and phone numbers compiled during probes into Vyapam scam and HP scholarship scam would be scanned for clues.