The CBI has arrested a man called Rakesh Ranjan, alias Rocky, who is believed to be the kingpin in the NEET paper leak case, sources said Thursday afternoon.

Ranjan has been sent to the agency’s custody for 10 days. This comes as the CBI is also raiding four locations – two near Patna in Bihar and two near Kolkata in West Bengal – in this case.

Over a dozen people, including the principal and vice-principal of a school in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, have been arrested so far, as various state police forces and the CBI investigate a national racket that involves leaking of question papers for competitive exams like NEET.

NDTV Explains | If No Paper Leak, Why Arrests, And Other Big Questions

Last week a student was arrested from Patna.

The CBI has, excluding Rocky, arrested eight people in connection with this case.

Tasked with investigating the nation-wide exam paper racket, the agency has so far filed six FIRs, or first information reports, including five for three separate cases in Bihar.

On Wednesday CBI sources told NDTV the NEET paper leak may have had its origins in the Hazaribagh school. Papers leaked from there also made their way to Bihar, a CBI official said.

READ | NEET-UG Paper Leak Had Genesis In Hazaribagh: CBI Officials

Explaining the sequence of events, the CBI official said nine sets of papers for the exam, which was supposed to be held on May 5, reached a State Bank of India branch two days earlier for safekeeping. From there, two sets were transported to the Oasis School in Hazaribagh, which was a centre for the exam, and the seals on them were broken by the time they reached the school.

CBI sources said that while it is not clear exactly where the papers were leaked from, what the evidence points to is the fact that it was: either from the bank branch, while in transit to the school, or from the school itself.

The NEET-UG exam is taken for admission to undergraduate medical courses.

Controversy – nearly 24 lakh students took the May 5 exam – broke last month after results were declared. The first red flags were the unusually high number of perfect scores; a record 67 students, including six from one coaching centre, scored a maximum 720. Questions were also asked over the award of ‘grace marks’ – not exam protocol, the NTA said – to 1,563 students.

Questions were also asked over the award of ‘grace marks’ to 1,563 students.

A retest for those students was held last week, but hundreds did not appear.

The entire row has made its way to the Supreme Court, which had served a notice to the under-fire NTA, or National Testing Agency, which is the central body that conducts the NEET exam.

The NTA today defended itself against claims the NEET paper had been leaked on popular messaging app Telegram, calling those images a “fake”. In an affidavit filed on Wednesday the NTA said the screenshots shared on Telegram were “fabricated”.

READ | “Manipulated”: Exam Body On “Fake” NEET Paper On Telegram

The NTA also claimed no NEET-UG question paper was found to be missing, and that no locks (of boxes containing the papers) were broken in Bihar.

READ | Why So Many NEET-UG Toppers? Exam Body’s Reply In Court

Further, the NTA also sought to explain why there were an unusually high number of high-scoring results in this year’s exam, saying “differences in new and old editions” of a textbook meant there were two correct options to one question. Removing that, the agency said, the actual number of toppers was only 17, “which is not significantly higher in numbers than previous years”.

The court is hearing a clutch of petitions seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam.

However, on Monday, the court said it was not for such a step.

READ | “Retest Our Last Option, Panel Must Probe Paper Leak”: Supreme Court On NEET

The three-judge bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said it therefore was loathe to order a re-test for nearly 24 lakh students – many of whom come from poor families and could ill-afford to spend money travelling to exam centres – unless necessary. A re-test is the “last option”, it said.

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The explosive allegations against an on-probation Indian Administrative Services officer are a “serious reputational hazard to the service”, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora said today. 

“The allegations against IAS officer Pooja Khedkar are a serious reputational hazard to the service. Are you in government to serve or due to a sense of entitlement? I urge Maharashtra’s Chief Secretary to conduct a comprehensive and impartial investigation into these allegations without delay,” Mr Deora wrote on X. 

The allegations against #IAS officer Pooja Khedkar are a serious reputational hazard to the service. Are you in government to serve or due to a sense of entitlement?

I urge Maharashtra’s Chief Secretary to conduct a comprehensive & impartial investigation into these allegations…

— Milind Deora | मिलिंद देवरा ☮️ (@milinddeora) July 11, 2024

“Ensuring justice and preserving public trust in our administrative service is crucial. The UPSC is known for producing high-caliber officers for public service. Those lacking merit and ethics are not fit to hold important public offices,” he added.

A 2023-batch IAS officer, Ms Khedkar faces multiple charges and is under scrutiny for allegedly lying about her OBC status, and visual and mental disabilities to secure perks otherwise not meant for trainee IAS officers. She allegedly used a red beacon – reserved only for VIP government vehicles – and a “Government of Maharashtra” sticker on her private car, an Audi sedan.

Reportedly, she even used Additional Collector Ajay More’s office when he was away, removed office furniture, and even asked for personal letterheads. These facilities are not available to officers during their 24-month probation.

Her father, a retired bureaucrat, had reportedly pushed for her demands to be fulfilled.

After Pune Collector Suhas Divase complained to the Maharashtra Chief Secretary about her, Ms Khedkar was transferred to Washim.

“The 2023 batch IAS officer will serve the remaining period of her probation as Supernumerary Assistant Collector in Washim district,” an official order said.

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