The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested a Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Ranchi student in connection with the Bihar NEET-UG paper leak case, news agency ANI reported. The arrested was identified as Surbhi Kumar, a second-year student of RIMS Ranchi, who is accused of solving the question paper for candidates, the news agency claimed CBI sources as saying.
Surbhi Kumar has been sent to CBI custody for three days after being questioned for a couple of days, officials reportedly said. The sleuths say that Surbhi was the fifth member of the gang that was present in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh on the NEET-UG examination day to solve the paper stolen by Pankaj Kumar.
The CBI has so far arrested 16 persons in connection with the case.
The RIMS, an autonomous institute under the Jharkhand government, was approached by the CBI earlier this week to get access to the student, news agency PTI said.
Earlier on Thursday, the CBI had arrested four MBBS students of AIIMS Patna in connection with the case. Like Surbhi, they were also part of the module responsible for solving the papers. They have been sent to CBI custody for four days.
NEET-UG paper leak: The story so far
A special court in Patna on Wednesday sent the key accused in the NEET-UG paper-leak case, who allegedly stole the exam paper from a trunk of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh, to the CBI's custody for 14 days, officials said.
During its custody of accused Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya till July 30, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to question him on his alleged role, his linkages with other gang members, the payments received and his local contacts who were involved in the entire theft process, the officials added.
Kumar's alleged accomplice, Raju Singh, was sent to the federal agency's custody for 10 days (till July 25) on Tuesday. The CBI has arrested Kumar, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur, for allegedly stealing the NEET-UG paper from the NTA's trunk in Hazaribagh, the officials said.
Kumar, a resident of Bokaro, was arrested from Patna, they said.
The agency also arrested Singh from Hazaribagh for allegedly helping Kumar steal the paper, they added.
It had said the investigators had matched a partially-burnt question paper found from a Patna safe house with a reference question paper provided by the NTA, confirming the leak's origin. However, it could not clearly establish who was behind the alleged paper leak, the officials said.