Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled to be held on Sunday, police on Saturday busted an inter-state racket in selling MBBS seats for huge money and arrested four persons in Bhubaneswar.
While two of the arrested persons hail from Odisha, the other two belong to Bihar and Jharkhand, Commissioner of Police S Dev Datta Singh told reporters.
The accused persons were apprehended following a raid conducted by the Special Crime Unit based on an intelligence input.
Preliminary findings indicated that the accused were collecting huge sums of money from aspirants for admission to MBBS course as police have recovered some cheques of Rs 90 lakh, The cheques were suspected to have been collected from students intending to get admission in medical colleges.
The gang members had already finalised deals for admission in medical colleges by promising parents of securing seats in MBBS course in exchange for money, the Commissioner of Police said.
In some cases, they even planned to send impersonators to appear in entrance exams on behalf of the real candidates.
During questioning, the gang members have informed the police that they used to impersonate and used to plant fake examinees instead of the actual aspirants, Singh said.
Preliminary investigation showed that the gang was using a mix of high-tech coordination and forged documents to operate the racket. It was also alleged that the accused persons were attempting to trap some Non-Resident Indian (NRI) families in this fraudulent scheme.
Parents of students appeared to have been involved in some cases, cooperating with the gang to secure seats for their children using money, he said, adding that if any parent is found supporting or facilitating such illegal practices, they too will be treated as co-conspirators and booked.
Police had been monitoring the activities of the gang members for some time following intelligence inputs. Acting on credible information, they conducted simultaneous raids and managed to apprehend the suspects before the scam could impact the 2025 medical admissions.
The arrested persons are believed to be part of a larger interstate network, and more arrests are likely to be made.
