New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a man believed to be one of the “kingpins” of the NEET-UG paper leak case. Rakesh Ranjan, alias Rocky, was arrested from the outskirts of Patna early Thursday morning. The special CBI court granted a 10-day custody of the accused to the investigative agency.
Sources in the CBI told ThePrint that Ranjan was “physically operating the paper leak” mechanism. He was hunted down using “advanced technical intelligence” employed by the investigators.
Ranjan comes from Nalanda and has been termed as a key associate of Sanjeev Kumar, alias Mukhiya, who has been identified as the alleged mastermind behind the leak of question paper of NEET-UG examination held on 5 May.
This is the fifth arrest from Nalanda after Panku Kumar, Paramjit Singh (Bittu), Rajeev Kumar (Karu), and Baldev Kumar (Chintu).
The arrest was made after the agency raided four locations, which were linked to Ranjan — three in Patna and neighbouring areas, and one in Kolkata.
Raids were carried out at 15 locations in Bihar and Jharkhand. A NEET candidate called Sunny Kumar from Nalanda, and Ranjit Kumar, the father of a candidate from Gaya, were also arrested.
ThePrint had previously reported that Bihar Police’s Economic Offence Unit (EOU) had arrested four students and members of a gang operated by Sanjeev Kumar from Patna on the day of examination. The EOU probe had found that several candidates were taken to a play school on the outskirts of the city by Sanjeev’s aides to memorise the solved question papers.
The CBI had on 27 June arrested a man called Ashutosh, who had arranged for the play school to be used to host candidates, and his aide Manish, who had facilitated the deal with him and the gang to bring in the candidates.
The Bihar EOU had also found in its probe that the question paper used by the gang was leaked from a centre in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, and Sanjeev’s aide Baldev had received the solved question papers in a PDF format on his phone on the morning of the exam for distribution to the candidates.
CBI also arrested Dr Ehsanul Haque, the principal of Oasis School, where the question paper was allegedly leaked from. Haque was also the district coordinator for the National Testing Agency. Imtiaz Alam, who was the centre superintendent at Oasis School and NTA’s observer in the town, was also arrested.
A journalist named Jamaluddin from Hazaribagh was also arrested for allegedly assisting Haque and Alam on the day of the examination. One Aman Singh, arrested from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad, was termed one of the “key accused” by sources in the CBI.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
Also Read: NEET fiasco isn’t just about broken dreams. It’s pushing lakhs of families into poverty