NEET-UG paper leak: CBI arrests ‘kingpin’ near Patna; special court sends him to 10-day custody

“The accused identified as Rakesh Ranjan alias Rocky, who hails from Nalanda, and is said to be a relative of mastermind Sanjeev Mukhia, was arrested by the CBI from the outskirts of Patna. The CBI had been trailing him since the case came to the agency and he was changing his hideouts frequently. With the help of technical surveillance, the CBI found his exact location and arrested him in the early morning,” a source said.

The agency produced him before a special court in Patna which has remanded him to 10 days of CBI custody.

After his arrest, four CBI teams conducted searches at four locations linked to Ranjan in Patna, nearby areas and one in Kolkata.

“Earlier this week, the CBI had conducted searches at 15 locations in Bihar and Jharkhand from where they found incriminating evidence in the case,” the source said.

The agency had earlier arrested the principal and vice principal of Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh-based Oasis school in connection with the case and two people who allegedly had lent the premises to NEET candidates where burnt question papers were recovered by the Bihar Police. The CBI, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered six FIRs in the matter so far.