NEET case: CBI arrests kingpin

New Delhi : The CBI on Thursday arrested one of the alleged kingpins in the NEET-UG paper leak case who was on the run ever since the crackdown on irregularities in the entrance exam began, officials said.

Rockey alias Rakesh Ranjan, who hails from Nalanda, and is said to be a relative of mastermind Sanjeev Mukhia, was nabbed by the agency from outskirts of Patna, they said.

The CBI had been trailing him since the case came to the agency. His run came to an end Thursday morning when he was arrested by the agency, they said. The agency produced him before a special court in Patna which has remanded him to 10 days of CBI custody, they said. The CBI conducted searches at three locations in Patna and nearby areas and one in Kolkata after his arrest, they said.

Earlier this week, the CBI had conducted searches at 15 locations in Bihar and Jharkhand gathering incriminating evidence in the case, they said. The agency had earlier arrested the principal and vice principal of Jharkhand's Hazaribagh-based Oasis school in the case and two persons who allegedly lent premises to NEET candidates where burnt question papers were recovered by the Bihar Police.

The Supreme Court adjourned till July 18 the hearing of a clutch of petitions seeking cancellation, re-test and probe into alleged malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 as the responses of the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) were yet to be received by some parties. Amid the festering row over the all-India examination, the top court noted that separate affidavits filed on Wednesday by the Centre and the NTA, which conducts the test, have not been received by counsel for some of the petitioners. "The further hearing shall be on Thursday (July 18)," a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, however, said they have served their affidavit to the counsel for the parties.