CBI Conducts Raids in Gujarat Amid NEET-UG Paper Leak Investigation

According to sources on Saturday, the CBI was searching seven locations in Gujarat as part of the NEET-UG paper leak investigation.

The operation, according to them, started early in the morning at the residences of suspects dispersed among the four districts of Anand, Kheda, Ahmedabad, and Godhra.

According to officials, the National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) paper leak led to the arrest of the principal and vice-principal of a school in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, as well as a journalist from a Hindi publication on Friday by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The National Testing Agency (NTA) named Ehsanul Haque, the head of Oasis School, the city coordinator for Hazaribagh for the medical entrance exam on May 5.

The officials added that vice-principal Imtiaz Alam has been assigned as the NTA's observer and Oasis School's center coordinator. They also mentioned that five additional district residents were being questioned by the CBI regarding the leak.

According to officials on Saturday, journalist Jamaluddin Ansari was taken into custody for reportedly attempting to assist the vice-principal and the principle.

In the NEET-UG paper leak case, the CBI has filed six formal complaints: five from the states where it assumed control of the probe, and its own FIR based on a referral from the Union education ministry.

Three cases in Rajasthan and one each in Gujarat and Bihar have been taken over by the investigation agency.

The NTA administers NEET-UG to applicants seeking admission to government and private universities' MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other relevant programs.

The exam this year was held on May 5 at 4,750 locations throughout 571 cities, including 14 overseas. In excess of 23 lakh applicants took the test.

On June 23, one day after the ministry declared it would turn over the investigation into the purported anomalies in the exam's conduct to the central agency, the first CBI FIR was filed.