Opposing the bail plea filed by the Jay Jalaram Trust Chairman Dixit Patel in connection with the NEET-UG malpractice case, the Central Bureau of Investigation told the Special CBI Court in Ahmedabad that the accused allegedly conspired to “intentionally show” the location of both schools run by the Trust — in Panchmahal district’s Parvadi and in Kheda district’s Padal — as ‘Godhra’ to be able to select and control both exam centres from the National Testing Agency (NTA) list. The CBI opposed the bail plea of Patel, arrested on June 29, stating that he was “very well known among local people and capable of influencing witnesses”. The central agency is collecting records related to irregularities in the examination to establish the connection between the accused persons in the pan-India network as during the probe the Godhra case accused were found “to be in contact with suspects in other states, involved in similar irregularities.” The CBI informed the Special Court that Patel being the Trust chairman “gave all the approvals for the exams conducted in his institutions” and also held meetings to “discuss issues on how the exams were to be conducted”. The CBI told the court that the Jay Jalaram School principal and the NTA city coordinator for Godhra Purshottam Sharma was responsible for selecting schools where NTA could hold the exams and recommend the center supervisor and deputy supervisor. Sharma used to update Patel on all events related to the exam. The CBI told the court that Patel was “aware” of the procedure of conducting NEET examinations and had complied with the NTA’s process to submit details of the school to be chosen as a Centre. The CBI stated that the accused persons allegedly conspired to manipulate the location of the second school in Padal (Thermal) in Kheda district to be able to have both centres assigned to Godhra city, under their control. The CBI said, “Investigations revealed …Parvadi Godhra and Jay Jalaram International School Padal (Thermal) were intentionally shown in Godhra by co-accused Purshottam Sharma. In reality, the Jay Jalaram International School Padal is in Kheda district and the exam centres were 40 km apart.This school is on the highway towards Ahmedabad and the cost of travelling had to be borne by examinees.” “Investigation also revealed that on the basis of details filled by various colleges and institutions, the NTA had provided the list of five probable exam centres around Godhra. However, the conspirators chose to select both exam centres which were under their control to be able to achieve their objective of changing the OMR answer sheets.” The CBI told the court that the accused had advised their candidates from other states such as Odisha, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and UP to fill up the examination centre as Godhra and choose the examination language as ‘Gujarati’. The CBI told the court, “These changes were carried out when the portal was opened for making corrections in application forms. At the instance of the accused persons, candidates from other states even showed their permanent address as District Panchmahals and Vadodara. While filling up the application form, the applicants can choose the city of examination and NTA then allots the exam centre in the city. Since NTA was given only two options in Godhra, Patel, along with other co-conspirators knew that the examinees would be allotted a centre under their control…” The CBI said while Patel was “regularly attending the school to look into its daily activities”, he “chose to remain far away from the city (Godhra) at the time that the examination was being organised, only to take the same as an alibi for not being involved”. The CBI said while probing one of Patel’s mobile phones it was found that he had “deleted his conversations with the persons linked to the school” . The CBI said that some of the chats between Patel and Sharma, pertaining to NEET exams were “deleted” from Patel’s phone but recovered from Sharma’s mobile phone.
