New Delhi: Hours after taking over the probe into the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has made five arrests.
The accused have been identified as Shubham Khairnar from Nashik, Mangilal Biwal from Jaipur, Vikas Biwal from Jaipur, Dinesh Biwal from Jaipur, Yash Yadav from Gurugram.
Dinesh Biwal is a local member of the BJP’s youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), local police and BJP sources told ThePrint. His brother Mangilal Biwal has also been taken into custody.
Dinesh’s social media account is flooded with photographs with BJP lawmakers and state-level leaders. Originally from rural Jaipur, the brothers had been settled in Sikar for the last five-six years.
Rajasthan BJYM president Shankar Gora told ThePrint that Dinesh Biwal didn’t occupy any official position in the outfit. “There are uncounted members who do not have any official position. I checked the membership records for the last three presidents and his name is not there among office-bearers.”
On the complaint from Ministry of Education, the CBI registered a case Tuesday evening under Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) dealing with offences amounting to criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and destruction of evidence, as well as relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act.
The twin arrests drew a sharp reaction from the opposition Congress party, with former chief minister Ashok Gehlot questioning the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government over the delay in the probe and flagging the lack of FIR registration by the state police’s Special Operations Group (SOG).
Sources privy to the probe said that the Biwal brothers have had a “suspicious” history that came to light in the wake of evidence in the present case.
“Four members from their family had qualified the NEET last year, which raises a suspicion that they had illegal access to the question papers,” a source privy to the probe said.
According to the SOG’s preliminary probe, Dinesh Biwal procured the question paper for Rs 15 lakh from a Gurugram-based career counsellor, who had allegedly procured it from the main accused Shubham Khairnar.
The Gurugram counsellor has been identified as Yash Yadav. “Dinesh had procured question papers even last year from Yadav, and all four of the candidates from his family qualified,” another source told ThePrint.
This year, Dinesh Biwal allegedly procured the questions on 29 April—four days before the scheduled NEET on 3 May. Yadav sold the same paper to several individuals suspected to be residents of Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the CBI has zeroed in on a suspect, identified as Dhananjay Lokhande, who had allegedly shared the physical copy of the paper with Khairnar via courier.
A resident of Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar, Lokhande, had been living in Pune’s Wagholi area for the last few months, the sources said.
“Lokhande was the man who passed on the physical copy of the paper to Khairnar. He was identified based on the technical details obtained from the consignment received by Khairnar,” a third source privy to the probe details told ThePrint.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Multi-state trail at centre of NEET UG ‘leak’ probe—Nashik to Pune, Gurugram & onwards