A "Munna Bhai MBBS"-style cheating racket has been busted in Bihar’s Lakhisarai during the NEET-UG retest, with police alleging that a gang arranged "solvers" to sit the medical entrance exam on behalf of candidates. The crackdown has led to the arrest of 24 people, including medical students and biometric company employees involved in the examination process. The gang was uncovered as more than 2 million medical aspirants took the NEET (UG) retest on Sunday, following the scrapping of the original examination due to a paper leak controversy.
Police suspect medical student Arpit Raj, from the ANM Medical College and Hospital in Gaya, to be one of the masterminds behind the network. Raj had previously been questioned by the CBI in connection with the 2024 NEET paper leak case. Another medical student, Mayank Kashyap, a third-year MBBS student at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), was also arrested, alongside 14 employees of the biometric company contracted for the examination process.
The network came under scrutiny after Kashyap reportedly entered the Hasanpur High School examination centre posing as a biometric company employee. This arrest led to the police raiding the KRK Higher Secondary School and Kendriya Vidyalaya in Lakhisarai, and this led to the arrests of seven students and many more people who were associated with the group. The gang is believed to have plans to rig the test using people inside and substituting candidates with trained solvers.
The investigation has also exposed the involvement of students from various medical and nursing backgrounds. Poonam Kumari, a nursing student from Banaras Hindu University, was allegedly caught sitting the exam for another candidate, whilst Saurabh Jha, a student at AIIMS Rae Bareli, was also detained. Other arrests include Aman Agarwal, an intern at Shahdara Medical College in Delhi, and Sanjeet, a nursing student from Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, who was taken into custody alongside his brother.
This whole matter has led to many questions about how these students were able to take part in the re-test despite having restrictions at their institutes. It is known that medical colleges had asked their students not to come out of their institute premises during the NEET examination time, and some institutions like PMCH organised seminars and quiz programs in order to check whether the students were present or not. Some students did not attend those programs and the police found out that Kashyap had run away from his college because of some illness.
Also read: NTA dismisses video claiming paper leak as 'fake'
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