Maharashtra connection found in NEET-UG scam following Bihar, Jharkhand, and Gujarat

Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra Police has identified four suspects involved in compromising the integrity of the NEET-UG Scam exam. These individuals allegedly demanded large sums of money from at least 12 candidates

The 2024 edition of the National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical science courses has been tainted by irregularities, and the issue has now expanded to Maharashtra. What was initially believed to be an isolated case of exam paper leaks in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Gujarat has now extended to involve individuals in Maharashtra.

According to reports, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra Police has identified four suspects involved in compromising the integrity of the exam. These individuals allegedly demanded large sums of money from at least 12 candidates.

Three of the accused are residents and employees of the Maharashtra state government’s Education Department. The fourth suspect, Gangadhar Munde, is from Maharashtra but is currently based in Gurugram, near Delhi.

The ATS has already arrested two individuals: Jalil Khan Umar Khan Pathan, a headmaster at a Zilla Parishad school in Latur district’s Katpur Village, and Sanjay Jadhav, a teacher in a Zilla Parishad school in Madha taluka of Solapur district. Both Pathan and Jadhav are in police custody until 2 July.

However, the investigation is ongoing, and two other accused remain at large. Iranna Kongalwar, an employee of the state government-run Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Dharashiv district’s Omerga, and Gurugram-based Munde, allegedly the mastermind behind the Maharashtra connection of the NEET-UG scam, have yet to be apprehended.

Police sources have revealed that images of NEET-UG hall tickets for at least 12 students were discovered on the mobile phones of Pathan and Jadhav. Additionally, coded messages were exchanged between the accused and Kongalwar and Munde.

The investigation team also seized bank passbooks from the two arrested individuals, showing transactions involving substantial amounts of money transferred to the bank accounts of Kongalwar and Munde. In Pathan’s wife’s bank account, transactions exceeding Rs 7 lakh were recorded. Pathan himself owns a residential property worth Rs 1 crore in the town of Udgir, and his family members have not been seen since his arrest.

Modus Operandi of the Accused

The modus operandi of the accused involved scouting for students willing to secure higher scores through illicit means. It remains unclear whether the accused provided solved question papers prior to the exam. However, WhatsApp messages indicate that Pathan demanded Rs 5 lakh from students in exchange for inflating their NEET-UG scores.

Upon receiving an advance of Rs 50,000, Pathan would share images of the student’s hall ticket and the amount with Jadhav. Jadhav, in turn, forwarded this information via WhatsApp to ITI teacher Kongalwar, who then relayed it to Munde in Gurugram.

Munde, among the four accused, reportedly had access within the National Testing Agency (NTA), responsible for conducting NEET-UG and other common entrance tests.

The investigation team has also interviewed 12 students and their parents whose hall ticket images were found on the accused’s devices. Parents revealed that Pathan and his associates received amounts ranging from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, promising inflated scores above 550. Notably, at least seven of the parents are school teachers.

Despite being posted in different locations, Pathan, Jadhav, and Kongalwar were all reportedly residing in Latur city with their families. Villagers in Takli Temburni, where Jadhav worked, claimed that he rarely reported to the school and was running private coaching classes in partnership with Pathan and Kongalwar.

Latur, situated in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, serves as a significant coaching hub for students preparing for NEET-UG and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for undergraduate engineering and technical courses in central government-run universities. According to regional news channel Saam TV, the four accused have been involved in malpractices across various academic entrance tests and state government recruitment exams for the past two years.

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