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Gujarat: Police said that helping 6 candidates appearing for the NEET-UG competitive examination by promising to solve their papers for an amount of Rs 10 lakh each, a criminal case has been registered against a school teacher and two others in Godhra in Panchmahal district of Gujarat for their alleged involvement. The racket came to light at a school designated as a NEET-UG exam center after the district collector received a tip-off regarding possible malpractice.
According to the FIR, after the district collector received a secret information that some people were involved in malpractice, the racket came to light at a school in Godhra, which was designated as a centre for the NEET-UG examination held on Sunday for admission to medical colleges. The FIR revealed that a physics teacher, Tushar Bhatt, serving as the deputy superintendent of the exam, was involved along with two accomplices, Parsuram Roy and Arif Vora.
The discovery of Rs. 7 lakh in cash in Bhatt’s possession, paid as an advance by Vora to secure a candidate’s position in the merit list, further exposed the depth of the scheme. According to information, an agreement was struck between the accused and NEET-UG candidates, wherein candidates were instructed to leave unanswered the questions they were unsure about during the exam. Subsequently, answers to these questions were to be written after the question papers were collected after the exam, he said, citing the FIR.
According to the FIR lodged at the Godhra taluka police station based on a complaint by the district education officer, Bhatt, employed at Jai Jalaram School, was assigned the role of deputy centre superintendent for the NEET exam. During investigation by a team of the district additional collector and district education officer, evidence was found on Bhatt’s mobile phone. A list of 16 candidates, along with their details, was recovered, sent by co-accused Roy on Bhatt’s WhatsApp.
According to the FIR, the accused said that the candidates who were promised money were instructed to solve the questions they knew and leave the others blank so that they could fill in the answers when the question papers were taken from them after the exam. An official from the Godhra taluka police station said the three accused have been booked under criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.
