The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) apprehended the suspected mastermind of the Bihar NEET-UG incident in Patna on Thursday.
Following the arrest, the investigative agency carried out searches at various sites linked to him in Patna and Kolkata, leading to the discovery of numerous incriminating documents, as per officials.
In the meantime, a local court has granted the CBI a 10-day custody of the primary accused for questioning.
Sources revealed that Rakesh Ranjan, also known as Rocky, managed a hotel in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Rocky orchestrated the leakage of the NEET-UG question paper and then transmitted it to an individual named Chintu, who subsequently distributed and printed the papers with answers for the students.
Rocky also arranged for individuals to solve the NEET-UG exams after the question papers were leaked. Rocky recruited several MBBS students from Patna and Ranchi as solvers.
The arrest of the main accused occurred two days after the CBI apprehended two additional individuals, including a candidate, from Patna in connection with the case.
Sunny, a NEET-UG aspirant from Nalanda, and Ranjit Kumar’s father, a candidate from Gaya, have been taken into custody.
According to officials, the CBI has arrested a total of nine individuals in the Bihar NEET-UG paper leak case, along with one person each in relation to alleged manipulation in Gujarat’s Latur and Godhra, and one individual from Dehradun in connection with a general conspiracy.
The CBI assumed control of the investigation following nationwide protests by students regarding purported irregularities in the medical entrance exam. As part of this investigation, the CBI has filed six FIRs in the case thus far.
One FIR from Bihar pertains to paper leaks, while the other FIRs from Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra involve cases of impersonation and cheating during the exam.
Rocky is the ninth individual to be apprehended by the CBI in Bihar in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case. Numerous arrests have also been made in other states, including Gujarat and Uttarakhand.