Bihar's 'Munnabhais': CBI registers fresh case in NEET-UG irregularities, 8 booked

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a fresh case in connection with alleged impersonation by four NEET-UG, 2024 candidates in Bihar's Purnea, officials said on Wednesday (January 15).

The central probe agency took over the case from Bihar Police on a request from the state government.

The principal of SRDAV public school, one of the centres for the prestigious medical entrance examination held on May 5 last year, has alleged that the candidates' biometrics showed four impersonators were taking the exam rather than genuine candidates, according to an FIR registered in the matter.

According to the FIR, one Nitish Kumar of Bhojpur appeared for Ashish Kumar of Mujaffarpur, Kamlesh Kumar of Jalore (Rajasthan) appeared for Dheeraj Prakash of Siwan, Saurabh Kumar of Begusarai appeared for Tathaghat Kumar of Sitamarhi and Mayank Chaudhary of Sitamarhi appeared for Deepak Kumar Singh of Muzaffarpur.

The CBI has booked all eight for alleged impersonation, cheating and forgery among others.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other medical courses in government and private institutions.

The exam was conducted on May 5, 2024 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates appeared for the test.

The Bihar Police launched a crackdown after getting inputs of an alleged leak of the paper and it soon snowballed into a major political issue.

The Union education ministry handed over the probe to the CBI, which had registered several FIRs in the case, taking over probes from different states including Bihar.

The agency had registered first FIR into the case on June 23 last year.