CBI arrests fifth accused in NEET question paper leak case, 3 on 4-day remand

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the fifth accused in the NEET UG question paper leak case on Saturday, a day after arresting the principal and vice-principal of Oasis School in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh in the same case.

Principal, Dr Ehsanul Haque, was the district coordinator of the NEET examination in Hazaribag and his deputy, Imtiaz Alam was the exam centre superintendent at Oasis School, besides being the National Testing Agency (NTA)’s observer.

The fifth accused has been identified as Jamaluddin Ansari, a marketing professional with a Hindi media organisation. His brother Salauddin also works at the same organisation as a bureau chief.

“He was arrested after marathon interrogation of both the brothers for the last two days,” said an official on condition of anonymity. The agency has received crucial technical evidence against him, the official added.

Today, all the three arrested accused from Jharkhand were produced before the CBI court of special judicial magistrate Harshwardhan Singh, who sent them to judicial custody. The court also accepted the CBI’s plea, which sought remand of three accused. The court granted the remand and ordered the CBI to produce them in jail on July 4.

CBI obtained the call data records of arrested Dr Ehsanul and Jamaluddin which found that they were constantly in touch with each other before and after the exam.

The CBI’s probe has revealed that the leak originated from the Oasis School. The trunk boxes containing question papers wrapped in envelopes were kept in banks and had two locks -- a manual lock with a key and a digital one which opened with a beep sound 45 minutes before the examination.

Despite the tampering of trunk and envelopes, the principal did not inform the higher authority, so his role is under suspicion and he was arrested, said the official.

The investigation revealed that on May 3, the Blue Dart Courier company, situated at Nutan Nagar, Hazaribagh, transported the Questions paper consignment to a bank. However, the consignment first reached Oasis School and then it was sent to the bank. CBI has also seized a mobile phone and a laptop of Imtiyaz Alam.

Today, all the five accused, including Manish Prakash, Ashutosh Kumar, Dr Ehsanul, Imtiaz Alam and Jamaluddin, were produced before a medical team at JPN Hospital for medical checkup.

Another team of CBI visited Beur central jail premises and interrogated 13 accused, who were arrested by the Patna police on May 5. The third team carried out searches/raids at Kankarbagh and Kanti Factory locality with two arrested accused, Baldeo Kumar alias Chintu and Mukesh Kumar.