Data Leakage of NEET PG aspirants: Plea in court demanding Rs 1 crore compensation, CBI inquiry

New Delhi: Taking the matter of fraudulent calls to NEET PG aspirants demanding money to increase their rank in the NEET PG 2018 results to Court, a medical practitioner recently filed a plea in the Delhi High Court. In his plea, the petitioner, Dr Mohinder Kumar demanded compensation of Rs. 1 crore for loss of sensitive data of his daughter who had appeared for the NEET PG 2018 examinations as well as a CBI inquiry to identify real culprits of NEET-PG, 2018 Scam highlighting that the said racket appears to have multi-state ramifications.

The doctor stated in his petition that he received a phone call from a person who identified himself as one Mithilesh Pandit stating that he is working with National Board of Examinations, NEET PG 2018. The petitioner added that the man demanded Rs. 5, 20,000 for increasing the rank of his ward in the said exam.

The doctor was indeed shocked as the man shared sensitive data of his daughter, a NEET PG 2018 aspirant including her candidate ID, Date of Birth, Contact details, Aadhar card number and Mobile number. The doctor pointed out that this is sensitive data was only available either with me and with officials of National Board of Examinations(NEET PG, 2018), New Delhi as the data is highly protected with password protected.

The petitioner further stated that the person who called for rank increment has also shared his bank account details (State Bank of India (SBI), account Number 20444974059 SBIN0003267 in Branch ADB PARSA, District: SARAN, State: Bihar.)for the money transfer as he demanded.

Petitioner Dr Mohinder recorded the phone calls in this regard and filed a complaint with NBE. He stated in his petition that while NBE responded to his email informing that NBE shall be filing a Police Complaint in this regard, however when asked about the records of the FIR, got no response from NBE. Hence the petition in the court.

Appearing in person before the court, Dr Mohinder, the petitioner submitted that he has not he is not pressing his prayer for compensation. His only grievance is that a proper inquiry and preferably a CBI inquiry should be ordered to identify the real culprits, who according to him, are involved in malpractices in NEET-PG, 2018, which the petitioner wishes to be term as a "scam"

Responding to the plea, the NBE counsel said,

"NBE is in receipt of an email dated 30.01.2018 from a complainant. The complainant has attached 4 audio clips of telephonic conversation between the complainant and a tout/agent. A copy of the email and the audio clips sent by the petitioner doctor are enclosed in a CD. While the claims made by tout/agent are bogus as the result is prepared on the basis of performance of the candidate on the exam day and in no way the marks/merit of any candidate can be changed, the particulars of the candidate which are part of the online application form of the candidate and mentioned by the tout/agent in his conversation with the complainant are found to be correct."

The NBE counsel further pointed out that the NBE has already made a complaints to local police, cyber cell and the Crime Branch of Delhi via the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dwarka District, DCP Office complex on the subject of false and bogus claims being made by touts/agents promising assistance in securing good marks/rank in NEET PG-2018 Examination and issued a press notice in this regard

The Delhi High Court dismissed the petition stating that,

.....Since, the only prayer of the petitioner is to order an inquiry into the malpractices in NEET-PG 2018 and leaking of personal details of the candidates, for which police complaint has already been lodged by the respondent, the petition is disposed of with a direction to the police authorities to investigate the matter as expeditiously as possible, by following the due procedure as per law.....

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