A student from Nashik, Maharashtra, identified as Shubham Khairnar, was detained by Maharashtra police for allegedly obtaining a physical copy of the NEET-UG 'guess' paper. Khairnar, a bachelor of medical sciences student in Bhopal, received the paper in Nashik a few days before the exam on May 3 and forwarded a soft copy to a person in Haryana.
The 'guess' paper was prepared by people who probably leaked the main question paper and was shared with Khairnar, who circulated it further. The paper was widely circulated in Rajasthan's Jaipur, Sikar, Kerala, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Dehradun, and other places.
The investigation revealed a network of at least 45 persons spread across Maharashtra, Kerala, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand, who provided the 'guess' paper to NEET aspirants. The probe also found a WhatsApp group 'Private Mafia' where the paper was widely circulated, with payments ranging from ₹5,000 to ₹30,000.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to visit Rajasthan in the evening, and the Rajasthan police have questioned 24 people across the country, including a Sikar-based counsellor who allegedly paid ₹5 lakh to buy the guess paper and sold it to NEET aspirants through WhatsApp.
