8 arrested for leaking NEET paper in Rajasthan for ₹35 lakh

Eight people including a girl were arrested from an examination centre in Rajasthan Institute of Engineering and Technology (RIET) in connection with the leak of a NEET question paper, exams for which were held on Sunday.

According to reports, the question paper was leaked after one of the accused took a picture of it with cell phone from the examination centre in Jaipur and forwarded it to two others in Sikar. The three-hour-long paper began at 2 pm and was leaked through WhatsApp at around 2.30 pm, reports said. The paper leak was allegedly masterminded by Navratna Swamy, who runs a coaching centre in Bansur.

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Ram Singh, one of the accused and an acquaintance of Navratna said Anil Yadav, a co-accused ran E-Mitra and used his niece Dhaneshwari, whose NEET centre was RIET, to leak the paper.

The leak was done in exchange for ₹35 lakh. While Dhaneshwari took a photo of the paper from the examination centre, Ram Singh and college administrator Mukesh Samota forwarded it to Pankaj Yadav. Pankaj sent it to Sunil Rinwan and Dinesh Beniwal in Sikar and got it solved by a teacher too. He then sent the answer sheet to Ram Singh and Mukesh Samota. Samota sent the answer paper back to Dhaneshwari.

The paper was also leaked in Jaipur and Sikar in the meantime.

While police seized the question paper and answer sheet from Dhaneshwari, a team has left for Sikar to nab Sunil and Dinesh.

While seven of the arrested were taken to police custody, Dhaneshwari was remanded to judicial custody.