CBI’s arrests in NEET-UG leak case — ‘masterminds’, ‘solvers’, and allied services

“All the solvers, who are MBBS students from reputed colleges, have been identified and most of them arrested. These solvers were specially brought to Hazaribagh as part of the conspiracy. The accused Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya perpetrated this crime along with few other masterminds who have been identified and many of them arrested. This group was actively assisted by a set of accused persons who arranged places for housing the candidates, another set of accused were involved in mobilising and ferrying the candidates. The candidates who gained access to the solved question paper are being traced and necessary action is being taken,” it said.

Considered one of the key suspects in the case, Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya is a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur. In its arguments before the Supreme Court earlier this week, the CBI said it was he who Aditya entered the strong room of the Oasis School in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh — an NEET-UG exam centre where the leak allegedly occurred.

Among those arrested is the school’s principal Ehsanul Haque and Centre Superintendent Imtiyaz Alam.

The “solvers” in the case who were allegedly brought in from various places and accommodated at a guest house in Hazaribagh and eventually paid to solve the paper, which was then sent to two locations in Hazaribagh and another two in Patna.