A man who stole NEET-UG paper from the trunk of the National Testing Agency in Bihar’s Hazaribagh before they were allegedly leaked and his associate has been arrested by the CBI today, sources said. Pankaj Kumar, who stole the paper, has been arrested from Patna while Raju Singh was caught in Jamshedpur.

Mr Kumar aka Aaditya did his civil engineering from NIT Jamshedpur in 2017, the sources said. His accomplice Raju had allegedly distributed the leaked paper, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier zeroed in on Hazaribagh as the origin place of the NEET-UG paper leak. The paper was leaked by Oasis school in Hazari Bagh, the CBI probe said, adding, that two sets of papers which reached there had their seals broken and instead of flagging the issue the staff of the school remained tight-lipped.

The CBI, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam, has registered several First Information Reports (FIRs) and made nearly 60 arrests so far. 

The NEET-UG exam – conducted by the National Testing Agency for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions – was held on May 5 this year. The exam has been mired in controversy, with allegations of cheating and impersonation. The CBI FIR from Bihar pertains to paper leaks, while those registered in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, are linked to the impersonation of candidates and cheating.

This year, the exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the test.

An 11-year-old girl was raped at Ambernath in Maharashtra’s Thane district, police have said. The main accused, a minor, has been detained along with five others. Four of the accused are minor and one is a girl, according to police.

Police said the 11-year-old was in Ambernath town when the accused girl talked her into accompanying her to a nearby locality, where the other accused were waiting.

There, the main accused raped her in an auto-rickshaw, the girl has said in her complaint. News agency PTI reported that the accused threatened the girl against talking about the assault to anyone. But she managed to flee and reach home, and told her parents about the assault.

A rape case has been registered under the new criminal code, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has also been invoked.

Inspector Jagannath Kalaskar of Ambernath police station said two adult accused have been remanded in police custody and the minor accused have been sent to a reform home.

The government on Tuesday put Puja Khedkar’s IAS training on hold amid a fake certificate probe and directed her to return to the academy in Mussoorie at the earliest. Khedkar has also been relieved from the District Training Programme of the Maharashtra government. Puja Khedkar has been in the eye of the storm for alleged misuse of power and manipulating disability and OBC quotas.