CBI conducts searches at seven locations in Gujarat in NEET-UG paper leak case

New Delhi: The CBI was conducting searches at seven locations in Gujarat in the NEET-UG paper leak case, officials said on Saturday.

They said the operation began in the morning at the premises of suspects spread across four districts -- Anand, Kheda, Ahmedabad and Godhra.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested the principal and the vice-principal of a school in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh and a journalist of a Hindi newspaper in connection with the National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) paper leak, officials had said.

Ehsanul Haque, the principal of Oasis School, was made the city coordinator of Hazaribagh for the medical entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5, they said.

Vice-principal Imtiaz Alam was designated as the NTA's observer and the centre coordinator for Oasis School, the officials said, adding that the CBI was also questioning five more people from the district in connection with the leak.

Jamaluddin Ansari, the journalist, was arrested for allegedly trying to help the principal and the vice-principal, the officials said on Saturday.

The CBI has registered six FIRs in the NEET-UG paper leak case, which include its own FIR on a reference from the Union education ministry and five from the states where it took over the investigation.

The probe agency has taken over one case each in Bihar and Gujarat and three in Rajasthan.

NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions.

This year's exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the test.

The first CBI FIR was registered on June 23, a day after the ministry announced it would hand over the probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam to the central agency.