Cheating At Neet Retest 30 Including Medical Students Held In Bihar

The Bihar Police on Monday said they busted a “cheating racket” in Lakhisarai during the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate or NEET-UG re-exam on Sunday by arresting 30 people, including medical students and employees of a biometric company tasked with verifying aspirants.

According to police officers who investigated those arrested, the cheaters passed the biometric check with assistance from the employees of the biometric company.

Lakhisarai police superintendent (SP) Prerna Kumar said they raided exam centres at three schools, arrested all the accused and recovered mobile phones and other documents from them. She added that 30 people, including nine impersonators, a candidate, two helpers, and 18 biometric staff, were taken into custody.

Police said one of the arrested impersonators, Mayank Kashyap, a resident of Hajipur and a fourth-year student at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), entered the Hasanpur examination centre in connivance with Ankit Kumar, an employee of the biometric company.

Kashyap had allegedly entered the examination centre posing as a biometric company employee. Based on information Kashyap provided during interrogation, the biometric company employees were caught, followed by the arrest of impersonators, police said.

Police identified Ravi Shankar, another student of Pavapuri Medical College in Rajgir, and Arpit Raj, from the ANM Medical College and Hospital, Gaya, as the masterminds behind the network. Raj had earlier been under tradar of security agencies and he was even questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the 2024 NEET paper leak case.

Shankar and Raj allegedly involved students at medical colleges as “solvers” who would appear at the exam on others’ behalf. The investigator said that more people linked to the gang and their transactions were expected to surface as the inquiry progresses.

Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Shivam Kumar cited the preliminary investigation and said that the “racketeers” charged their client students from ₹10 lakh to ₹12 lakh for impersonation. He added that medical aspirants would even submit ₹1-2 lakh as advance to avail services of the “solver gang”.

Police officers said they were scouring bank accounts, mobile call details, and digital transactions of those arrested after the NEET retest.

In Bihar, over 156,000 aspirants had registered for the NEET re-examination and over 100,000 appeared for the test on Sunday, with a maximum of around 46,000 sitting for the examination only in Patna. Overall, over 2.2 million medical aspirants took the test all over India and even at centres established abroad.

The retest was scheduled after the NEET-UG examination was cancelled on May 12 because central agencies found that the question paper was compromised. It was the second time within two years that the NEET-UG came under scrutiny.