NEET-UG scam: How Gujarat is emerging as the epicentre involving multiple states

Multi-state operation

Accordingly, on July 1, the CBI arrested the principal and vice-principal of Oasis School in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh in connection with the ongoing investigations into the NEET-UG scam in Gujarat. The central investigating agency also arrested a Hazaribagh-based journalist Mohammed Jamaludin for being the liaison person between the accused in Gujarat and Jharkhand.

The affidavit submitted by the CBI in the CBI special court in Ahmedabad on July 2 said, “The racket is spread across several states – Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. At the helm of the racket is one Sanjiv Kumar of Bihar who had managed to create a team of people to write the answers for the students.”

“Baldev Kumar alias Chintu, a close aide of Sanjiv Kumar travelled several times to Gujarat and Uttarakhand to set up people who would fill the questionnaire after the students left it blank. In Gujarat, he struck a deal with the principal and teacher of the Jay Jalaram School in Godhra and Kheda. Chintu also sent a PDF of solved question paper to all his contacts across four states. The whole transaction was carried out using forged SIM cards,” read the affidavit.

Along with the affidavit, the CBI has also submitted detailed documentation of phone location data of the accused, digital recording of pre-exam online meetings and financial records showing the transaction of ₹2.3 crore between accused in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa.

CBI arrests so far

Noticeably, the first CBI FIR was registered on June 23 and in less than a week Dixit Patel, the chairman of the Jay Jalaram Schools in Godhra was arrested for alleged malpractices in the NEET-UG exam. The school was one of the designated NEET exam centres this year.

Earlier, the CBI had arrested Purshottam Sharma, the principal of Jay Jalaram School in Godhra. Noticeably, he was also among the 19 accused in the question paper leak case in the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board junior clerk exam paper in 2023.

Talking to The Federal, SP Solanki, the Superintendent of Police said that another accused who was arrested, Parshuram Roy is the owner of a Vadodara-based education immigration company, Roy Overseas.

"Roy, the Gujarat contact of this racket spread across several states, in turn had taken into confidence Tushar Bhatt, a physics teacher at Jay Jalaram School to finalise the list of students from outside the state who had chosen the school as their NEET centre. Roy is also accused of telling students from Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka and other states to pick Godhra as their centre,” said Solanki, who was the investigating officer of this case before it was handed to the CBI.

“Tushar Bhatt has been interrogated by the police along with the inspection squad of the district education officer of Godhra. WhatsApp chats containing the final list of 16 of 30 candidates who had approached to cheat in the exam, was recovered from Bhatt. Another accused, Arif Vohra, a former martial arts teacher at the Jay Jalaram School and Bhatt’s acquaintance, was tasked with being in touch with students from Gujarat. Some of these students are being questioned by the CBI,” added Solanki.

Some of the students and their parents have also been arrested.

Further, an education consultant, Vibhor Anand Umeshwar Prasad Singh, has been arrested after the case was handed over to the CBI. “Both have worked closely with Parshuram who is accused of contacting the parents of students in Jharkhand and Odisha to finalise the deal,” he added.

Six FIRs filed

Notably, the CBI team is also simultaneously searching at seven NEET centers in Gujarat, including Godhra, Kheda, Ahmedabad, and Anand.

So far, the CBI has filed six FIRs related to the investigation into the case. One of these FIRs was registered by the CBI itself, on a reference from the Union education ministry.

The remaining five FIRs are of cases that were handed over to the CBI from local police in Bihar and Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.