Four MBBS students from AIIMS Patna were arrested on Thursday and remanded in CBI custody in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case. The group — identified as Karan Jain, Kumar Sanu, Rahul Anand and Chandan Singh — had allegedly solved papers for main accused Pankaj Singh. AIIMS officials had also worked with the CBI to seal their rooms a day earlier.
"No doctor has been arrested, but as per the information available, the CBI team has taken away four students. One of these students was not at the hostel. He himself reported to them later. So, going by the information we have received, a total of four students are with the CBI. One of their senior officers had earlier shared the names of all students involved in the NEET scam, along with their photos and mobile numbers," said Dr Gopal Krushna Pal — the AIIMS Patna Executive Director and CEO.
The development came two days after the CBI arrested Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya — a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur. He had allegedly stolen the NEET-UG paper from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh.
The NEET-UG exam held in early May had come under scrutiny after allegations about leaked question papers and other anomalies surfaced. The Supreme Court had seized a batch of pleas seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct fresh examinations.
Earlier on Thursday, the apex court directed the National Testing Agency to publish the NEET-UG marks obtained by all students on its website. A Bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the data should be published separately, city and centre-wise by Saturday 12 noon while masking the identity of the students.
SC will continue hearing the pleas alleging paper leak and malpractice in NEET-UG 2024 exams on July 22.
(With inputs from agencies)
