The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July 19 detained a first year MBBS student from Jharkhand’s Ranchi in the NEET-UG paper leak case. The 2023 batch student has been identified as Surabhi Kumari of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and a resident of Ramgarh district.
The CBI sources said that Surabhi Kumari has been arrested on charge that she was physically present in Hazaribagh along with four others to solve the paper in the morning of May 5.
Another accused Surender Sharma was also arrested yesterday in Patna, had helped Pankaj Kumar to steal the paper.
On July 18, another accused Surender Sharma was also arrested on July 18 in Patna, who had helped Pankaj Kumar to steal the paper. The central agency arrested four other MBBS undergraduate students of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case.
Sources said that on July 17, the CBI team reached girls hostel number 3 of the RIMS and after questioning for hours in the hostel, she was detained. Again on July 18, CBI team reached the hostel and took her to the CBI office in Ranchi for further questioning.
It’s been more than 48 hours, she has been detained and questioning is underway at the CBI office in Ranchi. RIMS management were informed about the questioning and the central agency asked the management to inform her parents.
On Thursday evening, her parents reached the CBI office where they were informed about her alleged role in the paper leak case. It is believed that she is one of the members of solver gangs which solved the leak question papers for the aspirants.
On July 18, four students of the 2021 MBBS batch of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Patna were arrested and a Special CBI court sent them to CBI custody for four days.
Sources in the CBI said that the question paper of NEET-UG exam which was stolen was distributed to a group of solvers to get the answers and she is possibly one of the members who had got the papers to solve it.
The arrest has been made two days after the agency arrested two accused Pankaj Kumar and Raju Singh. Pankaj is a resident of Jharkhand’s Bokaro and he was arrested in Patna on the charge of stealing the NEET (UG) paper from the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) trunk in Hazaribagh and Raju Singh has helped him to steal the paper.
RIMS Public Relation Office (PRO) Dr. Rajiv Ranjan said, “She is a first-year student of 2023 batch and CBI has taken her in their custody for interrogation. Rank wise and study wise, she is a bright student, so far whatever exams she has taken, she is above average. Whatever cooperation the CBI asked us to do, we are fulfilling it.”
Jharkhand has become one of the focal center in paper leak ever since, CBI has started the investigation into the case. CBI has already arrested five people from the tribal dominated state. Earlier it was Hazaribagh, then Dhanbad and now Ranchi.
