Remember all the stringent precautions in place for candidates writing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, popularly known as NEET UG?
MBBS/BDS aspirants should not wear a full-sleeve shirt, and shoes and earrings are prohibited while writing the test.
But it turns out even these neat precautions are not enough to keep NEET clean!
People were shocked to hear recent reports that four students in Tamil Nadu secured MBBS admissions through impersonation at the NEET exam centre.
Despite all preparations and forethought, people are wondering how this has happened.
Here, we detail the story of a father-son duo who used a proxy to crack NEET.
Methodology of the fraud
The scam appears to be similar to the story of the Kamal Haasan starrer Vasool Raja MBBS. Dr Venkatesh, a senior medical officer in the ENT department at the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital, Chennai, wanted his son, Udit Surya, to follow in his footsteps and be a doctor. Impersonation was the final resort after his son failed to crack the NEET exam twice—in 2017 and 2018. Venkatesh was arrested, and later suspended from service.
Udit Surya registered his name with all other personal information for the NEET exam 2019. However, the photograph of the candidate was that of another person who had appeared for the test. The admit card arrived with the name and address of Udit along with a photograph of the other person.
The proxy, whose photograph was on the admit card, wrote the examination at a centre in Maharashtra using the admit card of Udit. Invigilators at the test centre did not feel suspicious after checking the admit card. Udit got good marks when the NEET result came.
The proxy attended the online counselling with Dr Venkatesh for taking admission to Theni Medical College. He was in the class for a day and Udit started attending classes from the next day onwards. It was believed nobody would take note of the impersonation in a classroom having a strength of 120 students.
The scam came to light after an email was received at the office of the medical college dean. It is thought some of the students grew suspicious about Udit and must have sent the email.
Who all were arrested
Three father-son duos have been arrested. They are Udit Surya (Theni Medical College student) and his father Venkatesh, Praveen (a student of SRM Medical College in Chennai) and his father Saravanan and Rahul (a Thrissur native who was a student of Balaji Medical College in Chennai) and his father David.
Two other people who were arrested are George Joseph and Dr Mohammed Shafi, the alleged kingpin of the scam. Joseph was an entrance examination trainer from Thiruvananthapuram, who allegedly hired a proxy to write the NEET instead of Udit. Police suspect Shafi led the others to the intermediary.
Others who are yet to be caught
Police are still searching for the middleman, who goes by the name Rasheed and is thought to be a Malayali. Mohammed Irfan, Shafi's son and a student of Dharmapuri Medical College, is also absconding. Irfan is suspected to have fled to Mauritius to evade arrest.
Has this scam happened before?
The probability of fraud in previous years cannot be ruled out, but it has not yet been proven. Coaching centres have been instructed to provide information about those who have passed the NEET in the last two years.
