PATNA: The Bihar police have arrested the owner of a coaching centre who is believed to be the leader of a gang that tried to leak question papers of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held last Sunday.
A special investigating team picked up Chandan Kumar alias Lallu on the basis of leads provided by five members of the gang that were arrested previously. The man was allegedly trying to flee Bihar just as detectives reached his house in the Satbigahi area of Sheikhpura.
Chandan Kumar has been taken to Patna and will be interrogated by the special investigation team (SIT) about the attempt to leak the NEET question paper which was foiled by the Patna police.
Sources in the SIT said Chandan Kumar is a major link in the question paper racket with presence in several state capitals including Jaipur, Kolkata and Delhi. “The gang is believed to have sealed deals with nearly 100 students who appeared for NEET on Sunday. They demanded between Rs 40 and Rs 50 lakh from each candidate for helping them with answers to the NEET questions,” said one officer.
Five men, including two MBBS students from two medical colleges in Patna and the superintendent of a NEET centre, were arrested on Sunday while trying to open a metal box containing the question papers. They are currently lodged in the Beur Central Jail in Patna.
An audio tape purportedly containing the conversation between an NEET candidate and one of the gang members has surfaced in Patna, though police said its authenticity is yet to be established. In this tape, the fraudsters are heard collecting the candidates’ NEET admit cards and marking on them the answers to questions. Police, however, denied that any such activity came to their notice during the investigation.