The Bihar Police on Saturday detained six people from Deoghar district in Jharkhand over alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET, an official said. The six people were detained from a house near AIIMS-Deoghar in Devipur police station area on Friday night.
"The Bihar Police gave us a tip-off. On our identification, they were taken into custody. All the suspects have been taken to Bihar," SDPO (Deoghar Sadar) Ritvik Srivastava said, according to PTI.
On Friday, sources told ABP News that the question paper was leaked from an examination centre in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh.
Meanwhile, NTA Director General Subodh Kumar Singh was removed on Saturday amid controversy over irregularities in exams and Pradeep Singh Kharola has been given additional charge of the post of Director General of the exam body.
The suspects were identified as Paramjit Singh alias Bittu, Chintu alias Baldev Kumar, Kaju alias Prashant Kumar, Ajit Kumar, Rajiv Kumar alias Karu, all residents of Nalanda district of Bihar, and Panku Kumar, a statement issued by the Deoghar Police said.
The suspects were allegedly living at the house of one Jhunu Singh, as per officials.
NEET-UG was conducted by the NTA on May 5 with around 24 lakh candidates taking part in it. The results were announced on June 4, but they were followed by allegations of question paper leaks in states such as Bihar, besides other irregularities.
An investigating team from Bihar also visited Hazaribag on Friday evening in connection to the case, police said. Hazaribag Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Kumar Sibhashish said that an investigating team from Bihar arrived in Hazaribag but they did not share any details.
Sibhashish said they visited Lohsinghna police station and interacted with the officer in-charge there. The team did not arrest anyone from Hazaribag during its visit.
Lohsinghna police station in-charge Sandeep Kumar said that the team discussed the paper leak issue and was in search of a courier in the case.
On Hazaribag's reported connection with the alleged paper leak issue, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Nancy Sahay said, "We have not received any information on the district level. However if anything has happened, we will definitely contribute to solving the issue." The team of Bihar Police also conducted an investigation at an office of a courier service in Ranchi under Sadar police station area, sources said.
Sadar police station in-charge Kuldeep Kumar, however, said that they have not been officially communicated in this regard.
A source in Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit (EOU) said, "Six people have been detained in Jharkhand's Deoghar in connection with the case. Whether to declare them arrested or not would be decided on the basis of evidence and leads found from them."
"We will verify every suspect as per due process of law and then take a final call. We can seek clarification from any suspect as part of our investigation," he added.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand RJD postponed its scheduled protest over the NEET 'paper-leak' issue in Ranchi on Saturday.