E-Paper
CBI detains 4 AIIMS Patna medical students in NEET-UG question paper leak case
An official at AIIMS Patna said a CBI team carried out searches at the rooms of the four students , confiscated their devices and detained them for questioning
PATNA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has detained four students of AIIMS Patna in connection with the question paper leak in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), also known as NEET-UG, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
An official at AIIMS Patna said a CBI team carried out searches at the rooms of the four medical students of the 2021 and 2022 batches, confiscated their electronic devices and detained them for questioning on Wednesday evening.
There was no formal word from the CBI on the detention of the four students.
AIIMS director Dr G K Paul and medical superintendent Dr Anup Kumar did not respond to phone calls for their comment.
A senior hospital official, however, said the four medical students were under investigation by CBI on suspicions that they helped solve the NEET-UG question paper.
The move comes days after CBI arrested Pankaj Kumar (alias Aditya), a 2017-batch civil engineer from Jamshedpur’s National Institute of Technology from Patna, and Rajkumar Singh alias Raju from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. A special court in Patna on Wednesday remanded Pankaj Kumar in 14-day CBI custody, while Raju was remanded in CBI custody for 10 days.
According to CBI, Pankaj Kumar and Rajkumar Singh stole the question paper from a National Testing Agency’s trunk in Hazaribagh.
So far, the federal agency has arrested 14 people. One of the alleged kingpins, Rakesh Ranjan, was arrested from Nalanda on Thursday. Ranjan allegedly obtained the leaked paper, solved it and then circulated it to the MBBS aspirants. CBI last month, however, told a court that “a larger conspiracy exists involving interstate links in the NEET-UG examination related irregularities”.
