Students during a protest over the NEET-UG and UGC-NET examinations issue, in New Delhi.
Credit: PTI Photo
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Sunday decided to hand over the investigation into the alleged multi-crore NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) cheating scam in Godhra to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Bhupendra Patel-led BJP government in a statement said that since CBI is investigating irregularities in NEET examination conducted on May 5, the government has decided to hand over the case lodged at Godhra Taluka police station to CBI for a thorough investigation.
"The investigation has been handed over to CBI under section 6 of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. The state government has also issued a notification in this regard," the statement read. Meanwhile, the CBI in a release said that it has dispatched special teams to Godhra as well as Patna where local police have registered FIRs related to NEET cheating.
The exam took place on May 5 at Jay Jalaram School in Godhra and three days later the FIR was filed. So far, the police have arrested five accused on charges of plotting to help at least 30 students in the competitive exam by solving their papers in lieu of Rs 10 lakh from each of them.
The police found Rs 7 lakh in cash and cheques worth Rs 2.3 crore from the suspects, which are alleged to have been given to them by the parents of the students.
On June 21, a district court in Godhra observed that "malpractice seems to have taken place after the examination". The court also criticised the National Testing Agency (NTA) for not helping the local police by providing answer-sheets to ascertain whether cheating was carried out or not.
The local police claimed that cheating was averted after the district collector received a tip-off right before the examination and additional force was deployed at the centre. However, the court stated that the modus operandi of the suspects was to fill up answer-sheets after the examination got over and hence, a malpractice could have happened.
The primary investigation revealed that "particular OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) sheets were kept blank by the particular candidates/students, which were kept separately by the accused". These answer-sheets were to be filled by accused Tushar Bhatt and Purushottam Sharma after the exams. Sharma was the principal of the school while Bhatt was working as physics teacher. They were also supervising the exams at the school which was one of the centres for the NEET exam.
Investigation revealed that as part of the conspiracy, at least 30 students from Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha among other states chose Jay Jalaram School as their centre.
The three other accused have been identified as Parshuram Roy, alleged middle man Arif Vora and Vibhor Anand.