A criminal case has been filed against a school teacher in Godhra, Gujarat's Panchmahal district, and two others for allegedly attempting to help six candidates prepare for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) competitive exam by promising to solve their papers for Rs 10 lakh each, police said today, Thursday, March 9.
The racket was discovered at a Godhra school designated as a centre for the NEET-UG exam, which was held on Sunday, May 5, for admission to medical colleges, after the district collector received information that some people were engaging in misconduct, according to a First Information Report (FIR).
PTI reports that Tushar Bhatt, a Physics teacher and Deputy Superintendent of exams at the centre, was arrested along with two others, Parsuram Roy and Arif Vora.
According to the police, Rs 7 lakh in cash was discovered in Bhatt's car after Vora paid him an advance to enable a candidate to get on the merit list.
According to an agreement formed between the accused and a few NEET-UG (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) hopefuls, the latter were instructed to leave blank questions with answers they did not know.
The answers to these questions were to be written once the papers were collected following the exam, according to the FIR.
According to the FIR filed at the Godhra taluka police station in response to a complaint from the district education officer, Bhatt was a teacher at Jay Jalaram School and had been designated as the city's deputy centre superintendent for NEET.
On the day of the examination, a team of district additional collectors and district education officers arrived at the school to interview Bhatt.
When they searched his phone, they discovered a list of 16 candidates with their names, roll numbers, and exam places that had been supplied to him via WhatsApp by co-accused Roy.
Bhatt explained that these were the candidates who would sit the NEET exam at his centre. He admitted to being promised Rs 10 lakh each to solve six of these candidates' question papers, according to District Education Officer Kirit Patel.
One of the candidates had given an advance of Rs 7 lakh, which was confiscated by authorities.
The investigating team seized the teacher's mobile phone, cash and the car from where the cash was recovered and submitted a report to the district collector, who later ordered the registration of an FIR.
"The FIR was lodged last night (Wednesday, May 8) and further action was being taken," Patel said.
According to the FIR, the accused claimed that candidates who pledged to pay money were advised to answer the questions they knew and leave the rest blank so that they could be filled in with answers when their papers were retrieved after the exam.
A Godhra taluka police station spokesman confirmed that the three suspects were charged with criminal breach of trust, cheating, and criminal conspiracy.
The official stated that further inquiry into the situation was underway
