The CBI on Monday said it has arrested eight persons, including the suspected mastermind and paper solvers, allegedly impersonating real candidates to help them in the NEET entrance for undergraduate medical courses.
The agency received inputs that several people had entered into a criminal conspiracy to arrange solvers to impersonate real candidates in the NEET exam conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) at several centres in Delhi and Haryana on Sunday, the FIR alleged.
It was alleged that the impersonators planned to appear in the NEET UG Exam, 2022 held on July 17 for admissions in undergraduate medical courses in place of actual candidates and take the test in lieu of huge amounts of money. The CBI has alleged that user IDs and passwords of the candidates were collected by the accused, who made necessary modifications for getting desired examination centres.
"They also used the process of mixing and morphing of photographs to facilitate use of proxy candidates for appearing in the examination," the FIR alleged. The agency has filed the FIR against Sushil Ranjan, Brij Mohan Singh, Pappu, Uma Shankar Gupta, Nidhi, Krishna Shankar Yogi, Sunny Ranjan, Raghunandan, Jeepu Lal, Hemendra and Bharat Singh. The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating by impersonation, cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using forged documents as genuine.
The FIR was registered on Sunday, the day on which the NEET examination was held.
The FIR followed source information being received by the CBI that one Sushil Ranjan, resident of House Number 108, Gautam Niwas, Gautamnagar, Delhi, Brij Mohan Singh, Pappu, Uma Shankar Gupta and unknown others, in criminal conspiracy with each other are involved in arranging solvers who will impersonate themselves as real candidates in the NEET examination at several centres in Delhi and Haryana, according to the FIR.
According to the inputs, the solvers were to appear in place of actual candidates and take the examination in lieu of huge sums of money. Copies of identity cards of the candidates were collected for the purpose of making forged ID cards. Information also revealed that all solvers and middlemen along with their associates had come to Delhi on Saturday and Sunday and were staying at hotels in the city.
“The information reveals that the suspect persons and unknown others are indulging in use of fraudulent means in NEET UG 2022 examination being on 17.07.2022, thereby cheating the NTA, genuine meritorious candidates and the public at large.” added FIR.
The mastermind and solvers were caught from different examination centers and other places Delhi and Haryana while appearing\impersonating as candidates