NEET-UG Paper Leak Case: CBI Arrests One More Accused From Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested one person from Bhubaneswar in connection with the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 paper leak case.

The accused, identified as Sushant Kumar, alias Sushant Samantha (34), was allegedly involvement in circulation of the question paper among the examination mafia, after Pankaj Kumar, alias Aditya, a 2017-batch civil engineer from National Institute of Technology-Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, allegedly stole it from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh.

Reports said Sushant Kumar ran a coaching centre at Saheed Nagar.

He was nabbed on Saturday, brought to Patna on Sunday and produced in the court of the exclusive magistrate of CBI, which allowed the agency to take him on five-day remand.

With this, five people are in the CBI’s custody for interrogation.

Notably, the NEET question paper leak was first uncovered by Patna Police on the day of the examination, May 5. The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police had identified several individuals, including the mastermind Sanjeev Mukhiya from Nalanda district. The case was later transferred to the CBI for further investigation following a recommendation from the Union Education Ministry.

Last month, the central investigating agency arrested a man called Rakesh Ranjan, alias Rocky, who is believed to be the kingpin in the NEET paper leak case. Another suspected mastermind and two MBBS students of Bharatpur Medical College, who acted as solvers, were arrested a few days later. The technical surveillance had confirmed presence of Kumar Manglam Bishnoi, a second-year MBBS student, and Deepender Kumar, a first-year medical student, in Hazaribagh on the day of the NEET-UG exam.

The agency had also arrested Sashikant Paswan alias Sashi alias Pasu, an electrical engineering graduate from the NIT- Jamshedpur, for acting in tandem with Kumar and Rockey. A first-year MBBS student, Surabhi Kumari, of Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) was also arrested for allegedly being part of a ‘solver module’.

The first two arrests – Manish Prakash and Ashutosh – were made in Bihar. They had allegedly accommodated candidates at a boys’ hostel, associated with the Learn Play School in Bihar’s Patna, where they were given leaked papers and answer keys, on May 4, a day before the NEET exam.

The investigating agency utilised AI and advanced forensics to gather evidence.