NEET fraud: School principal among 2 more arrested, 5 in police net so far

Investigating Officer, Godhra Deputy Superintendent of Police N V Patel, said Anand has been sent to police custody till May 23 by a local court while Sharma will soon be produced in court.

“Anand is based in Vadodara but hails from Bihar. He is an education consultant, who put students in touch with Parshuram Roy of Roy Overseas (Vadodara-based immigration agency)… Students from the other states had also contacted Anand through his ads on social media and he had referred some students to Roy. We have recovered a list of students from Anand,” Patel said.

He added that Sharma, who was arrested late Sunday, was the principal and the NEET coordinator of the Godhra centre, while Bhatt — who was arrested on Saturday — was employed as a Geography teacher at Jai Jalaram School and the superintending officer of the NEET exam.

“Sharma and Bhatt were in connivance to tamper with the OMR answersheets that were to be left blank by the students involved in this scam… The investigation has revealed that Sharma was in the know and supportive of Bhatt’s plan to tamper with the OMR sheets. His name had cropped up during interrogation of the accused, especially Bhatt,” said Patel.

Meanwhile, a local court has extended the police custody of Parshuram Roy, from whose office the police had recovered signed cheques of the NEET aspirants involved in the fraud.

Patel said that the investigation was also on to ascertain the identity of the students, who had approached the accused for committing the malpractice to clear NEET with meritorious rank.

So far, five persons have been arrested in the case. They are Roy, Bhatt, Anand, Sharma and Godhra-based Arif Vohra, who had also allegedly paid Rs 7 lakh to Bhatt that were recovered from his vehicle during a raid by the education department on May 5 to thwart the alleged plan to tamper with the NEET answersheets.

Based on a complaint filed by Panchmahal District Education Officer Kiritkumar Patel, an FIR was lodged on May 8 at the Godhra taluka police station against Bhatt, Roy and Vora for alleged criminal conspiracy to help at least 26 students clear the NEET exam “with meritorious rank using malpractice”.

The FIR stated that the attempted malpractice was “foiled” on May 5 during a raid at the NEET centre by an inspection squad of the education department. The raid was conducted following an input received by the Panchmahal collector.

According to the FIR, it had been decided that the students would appear for the exam and allegedly “only attempt the questions, which they could solve” while leaving the “rest of the answerbook blank to be filled up by the agents after the exam when the answer book is submitted to the exam supervisor”.