The CBI has arrested a man called Rakesh Ranjan, alias Rocky, who is believed to be the kingpin in the NEET paper leak case, sources said Thursday afternoon.
Ranjan has been sent to the agency鈥檚 custody for 10 days. This comes as the CBI is also raiding four locations - two near Patna in Bihar and two near Kolkata in West Bengal - in this case.
Over a dozen people, including the principal and vice-principal of a school in Jharkhand鈥檚 Hazaribagh, have been arrested so far, as various state police forces and the CBI investigate a national racket that involves leaking of question papers for competitive exams like the National Eligibility Entrance Test.
Last week a student was arrested from Patna. The CBI has, excluding Rocky, arrested eight people in connection with this case, reports NDTV.
Tasked with investigating the nation-wide exam paper racket, the agency has so far filed six FIRs, or first information reports, including five for three separate cases in Bihar.
On Wednesday CBI sources told NDTV the NEET paper leak may have had its origins in the Hazaribagh school. Papers leaked from there also made their way to Bihar, a CBI official said.
Explaining the sequence of events, the CBI official said nine sets of papers for the exam, which was supposed to be held on May 5, reached a State Bank of India branch two days earlier for safekeeping. From there, two sets were transported to the Oasis School in Hazaribagh, which was a centre for the exam, and the seals on them were broken by the time they reached the school.
CBI sources said that while it is not clear exactly where the papers were leaked from, what the evidence points to is the fact that it was: either from the bank branch, while in transit to the school, or from the school itself.
The NEET-UG exam is taken for admission to undergraduate medical courses.