NEET-UG row: CBI arrests private school owner from Godhra, Gujarat

Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) students stage a protest over the NEET exam leak issue, at Delhi University. Pic/PTI

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday reportedly arrested the owner of a private school in Gujarat's Godhra in connection with alleged malpractices in the NEET-UG exam.

According to the PTI report, Dixit Patel, owner of Jay Jalaram School situated near Godhra in Panchmahal district, where the exam was conducted, was arrested in the early hours from his residence, said public prosecutor Rakesh Thakor.

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He added that Patel is now being taken to Ahmedabad by the CBI to acquire his remand, reported PTI.

"As the case has been handed over to the CBI by the Gujarat government, a CBI team will produce him (Dixit Patel) before a designated court in Ahmedabad to acquire his remand," Thakor told PTI.

Jay Jalaram School was one of the designated centres where the NEET-UG exam was held on May 5.

Patel is reportedly the sixth person to be arrested in this case, wherein the accused allegedly demanded Rs 10 lakh from candidates to help them clear the test.

Earlier, a court on Saturday remanded four accused arrested in connection with alleged malpractices at NEET-UG held at a school near Godhra in Gujarat in CBI custody until July 2. Gujarat police arrested five people last month in the case.

Of them, the Central Bureau of Investigation sought the custody of school teacher Tushar Bhatt, principal of Jay Jalaram School Purushottam Sharma, and middlemen Vibhor Anand and Arif Vohra.

The agency did not seek the remand of education consultant Parsuram Roy, a fifth accused.

Meanwhile, in a major crackdown, the Karnataka police on Saturday arrested one Auranganda Arvind Kumar, alias Aditya Deshmukh, who allegedly ran a NEET counseling centre in the Sakinaka area and was absconding after abandoning the facility. Kumar was arrested in the Market Yard locality in the Belgaum district of Karnataka.

The company, Advay's Vidya Pravesh Margdarshak Private Ltd., which ran its office in Sakinaka at 1 Aerocity Corporate Park, had shut down its NEET-UG counseling operations amid a probe by the CBI. The matter came to light when the employees turned up to work on Friday and found the counseling centre to be shut down abruptly. They approached the police to file a written complaint.

(with input from PTI)