Maharashtra Police on Monday detained two more accused in Latur besides the 4 persons named in the FIR in the NEET paper leak case. Earlier, police arrested Jalil Khan Pathan, headmaster of Zilla Parishad School located in Katpur who was sent to police custody till July 2.
An accused named Sanjay Jadhav was detained yesterday and the police were interrogating him. No detail was given about the second detainee. According to police sources, both detainees used to work on the instructions of Pathan.
At present, the Crime Branch team is searching for other accused in this case. Police are likely to send summons to some parents of students for questioning in this case, said the sources.
According to the primary investigation, to increase the marks of the student in the NEET exam, the accused used to take Rs 50,000 in advance and Rs 2-5 lakhs after the completion of the work.
Police and crime branch team are investigating how the marks of the student could be manipulated and how these people used to operate. At present, the police have sent the mobile phones of the arrested and detained accused for forensic investigation.
CBI takes over five more cases in multiple states
Meanwhile, the CBI on Monday took over five new cases of alleged malpractices in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG that were being investigated by police in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar, as the political storm intensified with the opposition gearing up to confront the government in Parliament on the paper leak issue.
Mamata writes to PM
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider abolishing NEET, the national-level medical entrance exam introduced in 2013, and reverting to the system of states conducting the exam in the wake of the paper leak row.
Several opposition MPs said on the first day of the 18th Lok Sabha that the government will have to answer on the issue in Parliament as it is causing hardship to lakhs of students.
As Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan proceeded to take oath in Lok Sabha, members of the opposition shouted "NEET, NEET".
Amid protests and litigation, the Centre had on Saturday shunted out National Testing Agency (NTA) Director General Subodh Singh and handed over the probe into irregularities in NEET-UG to the CBI, which is now probing a total of six cases in the matter. Pradeep Singh Kharola took the additional charge of NTA on Monday and had meetings with officials of the testing body.
(With PTI inputs)
