The Uttarakhand police have busted a gang involved in duping medical aspirants on the pretext of providing them the question paper of the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET)-II, which was held on Sunday.
The sensational disclosure by the Nainital police created confusion among the NEET aspirants throughout the day on Sunday as they were anxious to know whether the question paper stands leaked or not. However, the examination body, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), after cross-checking with the question paper provided by the gang to some aspirants with the original found that the paper was not leaked.
The Nainital police raided Pratiksha resort in Ramnagar on the intervening night of Saturday- Sunday and arrested three persons when they were dictating the question paper to some NEET aspirants.
On intelligence inputs that more than 300 students of Bihar have opted for Haldwani centre for the prestigious examination, the Nainital police got active. The police came to know that these aspirants would camp in some of the hotels of Haldwani and a gang had assured them to provide the question paper of NEET scheduled on Sunday.
The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Nainital, Sweety Agarwal told 'The Pioneer' that all the aspirants who were staying in the hotels of Haldwani mysteriously left for Ramnagar on Saturday evening. The police sent a decoy customer to the resort where the manager told that the no room is vacant in the resort which further confirmed the suspicion of police as this time of year no tourists visit the area. At around 1 am on Sunday the aspirants were asked to assemble at the dining hall, they were even scrutinized before entry. At around 2 am the paper reportedly arrived on the WhatsApp of one of the gang members who started dictating the question paper to a group of 44 aspirants present in the hall. A police team led by CO Ramnagar swooped into the premises and arrested three persons.
The SSP said that the arrested include Sanjay Kumar Prabhat, resident of Shekpura, Bihar, Nishat Ahmad Niyazi, resident of New Delhi, and Bihar resident Ajay Kumar Sinha. On the information provided by the three the police later arrested Vikas Kumar, a resident of Chhapra in Bihar and Patna resident Dinesh Prasad.
The arrested have accepted their involvement in the crime and have informed that they provide question papers to the candidates aspiring for many competitive examinations. The parents of the aspirants told the police that they were approached by the gang and offered to provide question paper of the all India examination. They disclosed that a sum ranging from Rs 20 to 30 lakh was demanded by the culprits and they had given some advance to the gang. The police have confiscated a sum of Rs 90,000 cash and cheques worth lakhs of rupees from the possession of the gang.
Agarwal said that Sanjay Kumar Prabhat is the kingpin of the gang. She said that all 44 aspirants were allowed to participate in the NEET examination on Sunday. The SSP further informed that the police are working on the links of the gang but categorically said that the paper which was being dictated by the gang was not the actual question paper of NEET II.
Appreciating the effort of the team the State Director-General of Police (DGP) MA Ganapathy declared a reward of Rs 20,000 for it. The DIG Kumaon range and SSP Nainital announced a sum of Rs 5,000 and 2,500, respectively, for the team.