NEET row: CBI searches 7 sites in Gujarat, arrests Jharkhand journalist

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday (June 29) searched seven premises in Gujarat in connection with irregularities in the NEET exam that has come under widespread attack.

The searchers were spread across Anand, Kheda, Ahmedabad, and Godhra districts, official sources said.

Jharkhand arrests

The searches happened a day after the CBI arrested the principal and vice-principal of a school in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and a journalist in connection with the leak of a question paper of the National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination.

Ehsanul Haque, principal of the Oasis School, was the city coordinator of Hazaribagh for the medical entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5.

Journalist arrested

Vice-principal Imtiaz Alam was designated the NTA observer and the centre coordinator for Oasis School, officials said, adding that the CBI was also questioning five more people from the district.

Journalist Jamaluddin Ansari, who worked for a newspaper, was arrested for allegedly trying to help the principal and the vice-principal, the officials said.

CBI probe

The CBI has registered six FIRs in the NEET paper leak case, which include its own FIR on a reference from the Union education ministry and five from the states where it took over the investigation.

The agency has taken over one case each in Bihar and Gujarat and three in Rajasthan.

NEET under cloud

NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions.

This year's exam was conducted on May 5 across 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates took the test.

The first CBI FIR was registered on June 23, a day after the ministry announced it would hand over the probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam to the central agency.