The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested eight accused, including the mastermind, as it busted a fraudulent candidate racket in the NEET UG-2022 examination, held on Sunday, for admission to various undergraduate medical courses.

The arrested accused included mastermind Sushil Ranjan, Krishna Shankar Yogi, Sunny Ranjan, Nidhi, Jeepu Lal Raghunandan, and Bharat Singh.

A case was registered against 11 accused on the allegations of fraud in the exam conducted by the NTA, under the Education Ministry, for admission to MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BSMS, BUMS, BHMS, and other undergraduate medical courses in approved, recognized medical, dental, AYUSH and other colleges/deemed universities, as well as institutes like AIIMS and JIPMER.

As per the CBI, the mastermind, a resident of Delhi's Gautam Nagar, in conspiracy with others including some candidates were involved in arranging solvers to impersonate these candidates in the examination at several centers in Delhi and Haryana.

User IDs and passwords of certain candidates appearing for the examination had been collected by the accused and their associates and necessary modifications were made for getting desired examination centers as planned by them.

They also allegedly used the process of mixing and morphing photographs to facilitate the use of proxy candidates for appearing in the examination. Copies of identity cards of such candidates were being collected to make forged ID cards.

During the investigation, the mastermind and solvers were caught from different examination centers and other places in Delhi and Haryana while impersonating candidates.

Two solvers were caught at Faridabad's Sector 81, another solver from the center at a school in Delhi's Havelock Square, New Delhi while the mastermind was also apprehended from outside the school, and another accused from the hostel of Safdarjung Hospital. (AA/IANS)