NEET Impersonation Scam: Unconditional bail granted to fourth student in a row, mother denied relief

Earlier this month the state government had ordered getting fingerprints of first-year students of government and private colleges as the imprint would help detect with accuracy any fraud
Image for representational purpose only
Image for representational purpose only

The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court granted unconditional bail to a Dharmapuri-based medical student who was arrested in connection with NEET scam but denied bail to her mother. So far, four students have been granted bail in connection with the scam. Justice GR Swaminathan passed the order on a joint petition filed by the student and her mother one A Mynavathi.

Considering the submission of the counsel for petitioners that the student's sister was differently-abled, the judge did not impose any conditions. The duo was arrested for securing medical seat by engaging an impostor to write NEET examination. It was the case of the prosecution that the student had scored only 68 marks in the exam and that she had been granted seat based on the 367 marks scored by the impostor who wrote the exam in her identity in Kolkata.

In one other case, after a Theni medical college student was released, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court granted bail to two more students who were arrested in connection with the NEET impersonation scam. However, the Court denied relief to the fathers of the two students. 

Justice Swaminathan passed the order on the petitions filed by S Saravanan and CA Davis and their sons seeking direction to grant them bail. Saravanan submitted in his petition that his son had scored 130 marks in the NEET exam conducted this year and was studying in a private medical college in Chennai. However, the police arrested both of them on false allegations that his son had impersonated in the NEET exam, Saravanan stated and requested the Court to grant them bail. 

A similar petition was filed by Davis and his son. Meanwhile, two anticipatory bail petitions were filed by a student and his father V Ravikumar. The student claimed that there was a mismatch of the photograph in his NEET hall ticket and that the same had been notified to the concerned authorities prior to the exam and he was permitted to write the same only after due verification at the examination hall. 

However, the CB-CID personnel have put them under the scanner suspecting that they may have committed impersonation, the petitioners stated and sought anticipatory bail. Justice GR Swaminathan adjourned the anticipatory bail plea to November 6, adding that the interim protection (against arrest) given to the duo would continue till then.

Owing to this scam, earlier this month the state government had ordered getting fingerprints of first-year students of government and private colleges as the imprint would help detect with accuracy any fraud or impersonation. Thumb impressions of 4,250 students admitted to medical courses in Tamil Nadu this year were sent to the Crime-Branch CID that is probing the impersonation scam.

The scam had come to light in September after the Dean of Government Theni Medical College, A K Rajendran, received two emails on September 11 and 13 stating that MBBS student K V Udit Surya got admitted to the college without having appeared for NEET, having used an impersonator instead. The father-son duo was nabbed by the CB-CID at Tirupati on September 25 and subsequently arrested the following day. Their judicial custody was recently extended by the Theni JM court till October 24. So far, the CB-CID has apprehended nine persons, including a broker and four students and their parents, in the case.

This group includes doctors, medical college students and also their parents. Over a dozen students attending medical colleges in Theni, Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu passed the entrance test by using impersonators who took the test for them in other states. Candidates allegedly engaged proxies to write the exam for them with the same credentials in several other centers to get admission to medical colleges.

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