NEET-UG malpractice: 15 days of custody not enough to find deep-rooted conspiracy, says court

The CBI had on Saturday sought the four-day custody of the four accused – prime accused Tushar Bhatt (NEET-UG centre superintendent in the district), Jay Jalaram school principal Purshottam Sharma, education consultant Vibor Anand and Godhra resident Arif Vohra — from the court.

Malpractices that were detected in two schools run by the Jay Jalaram Education Trust at Parvadi near Godhra and Thermal (named after the Wanakbori Thermal power plant) in Kheda district, which were centres for this year’s NEET-UG exam.

Stating that the probe into the “malpractice” was of “grave public interest”, the court on Saturday said that the “rights of the investigating officer” could not be ignored, and granted custody of the accused to CBI until 4.30 pm on July 2.

While defence lawyers, appearing for the four accused, emphasised that Section 167 of the CrPC stated that the magistrate must ensure that the detention of the accused “does not exceed a period of 15 days in the whole ”, the court cited the exceptions also provided in the subsections. It highlighted that the subsections empowered the magistrate to “authorise detention” ranging from 60 to 90 days, depending on the gravity of the crime.

It added that the Right of Education and Health enshrined in the Constitution has been “directly involved and affected in this case”. “This malpractice as a part of conspiracy has been done by the accused persons in a magnitude that has affected the grave public interest… Presently, in several states, there are cases registered for commission of malpractice in NEET-UG examination,” it said, adding that in some cases, prima facie connections are being found between cases.

“There is a reasonable possibility of connection of Gujarat NEET-UG scam to other accused belonging to other states. It requires deep, fair, impartial and transparent investigation. It is quite an exceptional case, which had prima facie deep rooted conspiracy, as this fact is also on record that these two cebtres (Jay Jalaram in Parvadi and Thermal) are involved in committing such type of malpractices in past also,” the court said.

The court said that according to the defence, the four accused have already been in police custody for an adequate period and have been questioned by the investigating officer of the Godhra taluka police station. It added that merely because the case has now been handed over to the CBI cannot create a fresh ground to grant further police custody.

It further said, “While considering Section 167 of CrPC, in my considered opinion one should not obliviate the rights of the investigating officer. In other words, with the assistance of the able and effective investigation, the criminal code can achieve its paramount goal to impart substantial justice. In some cases, particularly in which the larger deep-rooted conspiracy is involved, initially, it is very difficult to find out the entire evidence or find out the entire chain of conspiracy because in such types of cases, modus was cleverly planned by the accused persons. So, within the initial 15 days of custody, it is very difficult to find out the truth by the investigating agency.”

The court went on to cite cases where the Supreme Court has interpreted that despite Section 167, custody can be granted from 60 to 90 days in specific cases.

“In the present case, there are allegations that during interrogation, some surprising facts have come within knowledge of the investigating officer that some selected shortlisted candidates from various states, who did not actually have connection with Panchmahal district, which is a tribal area, intentionally and specifically chose the particular centre – Jay Jalaram schools to appear in the NEET-UG examination 2024…,” the court said.

It added, “Both centers are situated in a remote area. The selected candidates belonged to about 1,000 km (away) from these centres… This fact is also revealed that the accused collectively, as a part of conspiracy, suggested to the shortlisted candidates to choose these two centres so that they can facilitate obtaining the maximum marks in NEET-UG examination.”

According to the investigation, the modus operandi of the accused was to instruct shortlisted candidates to answer only those questions they knew answers to. The remaining questions were to be left unanswered. The court said that immediately after completion of the examination, the accused, specifically Purshottam Mahavirprasad Sharma and Tushar Rajnikant Bhatt, would fill-up the unanswered questions in OMR sheets with correct answers and keep the same in the “envelope very cleverly”.

The court also observed that the malpractice was carried out in lieu of “receiving huge money… some amount of Rs 7 lakh was recovered from the car of Sharma and various signed blank cheques as well as cheques worth of Rs 2.3 crore were seized during investigation”.

Officials said the four accused would be interrogated at the Panchmahal circuit house in Godhra, where a team of CBI officers has put up since earlier this week.

The CBI, meanwhile, is yet to seek custody of the fifth arrested accused, Parshuram Roy – owner of Vadodara-based immigration agency Roy Overseas Services, from where the Panchmahal district police had recovered cheques amounting to Rs 2.3 crore signed by some parents of candidates.