Theni, Tamil Nadu: As the probe into the widespread use of dummy candidates to ace the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is on, the special investigation team suspects the involvement of top authorities of private colleges in the scam.
The Tamil Nadu CB-CID had summoned the deans of SRM Medical College and Sree Balaji Medical College to its headquarters in Theni the other day and questioned them. The cops would make a move to record the arrests only after it is known as to how the fraud was committed. Both these colleges are located in Chennai.
Two students -- Praveen and Rahul -- are suspected to have secured the admission by tampering with the mark list. Praveen is a student of SRM Medical College and the latter, a Thrissur native, is a student of Sree Balaji Medical College.
The college dean or other authorities are likely to have aided them to secure admission. However, it is not known if the marks of their qualifying exam or the rank list were tampered with. To ascertain that, the current round of questioning has to be completed.
Recently it had come to light that candidates got admission to medical colleges after paying an imposter to write the exam on their behalf. Three students have been arrested in connection with the case so far. However, only the impersonation fraud committed by Udit Surya, a student of Theni Government Medical College, has been confirmed.
One of the biggest scams to rock the country's public exam system was exposed after Surya was caught and questioned after his college card photo did not match the NEET ID photo.
Rahul and his father Davis, who were arrested the other day, have been remanded in judicial custody for 12 days. The cops had earlier arrested a Keralite, entrance exam trainer George Joseph, suspected to be a middleman in the case. The Thiruvananthapuram native has also been remanded.
Girl student, father let off
Meanwhile, the police have let off Sri Sathya Sai Medical College student Abhirami and her father, who were arrested on suspicion of cheating in the exam. The probe team has said that prima facie there was nothing suspicious about Abhirami's admission.
However, the team is yet to investigate the role of two college employees, who had allegedly helped Udit Surya. Dr Rajendran, the dean of Theni Medical College, had raised the allegation in his complaint.
The probe team is also checking if Mohammed Irfan, a student of Dharmapuri Medical College, had secured admission through impersonation or by changing the marks. The college dean, Dr Sreenivasa Raj, would be questioned on Wednesday to get more clarity on this.
