The CBI on Tuesday arrested two more accused persons, including the man who allegedly stole NEET-UG question papers from a trunk of the National Testing Agency in Bihar’s Hazaribagh before they were leaked, sources said.
“The accused Pankaj Kumar, who stole the papers, and his associate Raju Singh were arrested from Patna and Jamshedpur, respectively, in connection with the May 5 NEET-UG medical exam paper leak case,” said a CBI official.
Pankaj, who did his civil engineering from an NIT in Jamshedpur in 2017, is part of the "paper leak mafia" and Raju allegedly helped him in circulating the question papers, the official said.
On July 10, the agency had arrested from Patna Rakesh Ranjan alias Rocky, who is believed to be one of the kingpins in the paper leak case.
The alleged mastermind, Sanjeev Mukhia, is suspected to have fled to Nepal.
The agency had earlier arrested the principal and vice-principal of Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh-based Oasis School in the case and two persons who allegedly lent premises to NEET candidates where burnt question papers were recovered by Bihar police.
The CBI is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam following a reference from the education ministry. The Centre — which initially dismissed the possibility of a paper leak — had later announced that the probe into the alleged irregularities would be handed over to the CBI, amid countrywide protests and litigation by students.
The NEET was conducted by the NTA on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities with over 23 lakh candidates appearing for the examination.