NEET 2017: Kingpin of paper leak racket held in Delhi

Jaipur: A man alleged to be the kingpin of a racket that duped medical entrance exam aspirants in the name of providing National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) question paper, was arrested from New Delhi by the anti-terrorist squad of Rajasthan police, police said.

Uma Shankar Gupta (42) was arrested from his Jasola Vihar residence in Delhi, they said, adding that it is the sixth arrest in the case so far.

“Gupta, a habitual offender, had earlier duped several people in the name of providing question paper of the medical entrance examination. He is based in Delhi and had established links in other states to operate his gang. He was earlier arrested in 2006 in Shimla and in 2015 in Telangana in connection with examination paper leak case,” ATS SOG inspector general of police, Umesh Mishra said, adding that he would brought to Jaipur and produced before a court.

Gupta owns a firm in Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, through which he allegedly ran the gang that leaked question papers of the medical examination paper and help people grab a seat in medical colleges across the country.

“His role in impersonation racket is being investigated,” Mishra said. On 8 May, police had arrested five members of the gang, including a government employee, in the case. They had made available the question papers to some of the aspirants on the night of 6 May, but none matched with the paper which was held on Sunday last.

The accused had promised ten students, taking the exam, to provide leaked question papers to them in lieu of money and they were about to take Rs5 lakh from each students. One of the ATS team was in Delhi and arrested Ashok Gupta and Rahul while the team in Jaipur detained Vikram Sinha, Vikas Sinha and Bhupendra Sharma.

Sinha’s had offices in Rajasthan and Bihar to lure the candidates, while Ashok Gupta is a close friend and a partner of kingpin of the racketm, Uma Shankar. Bhupendra Sharma is a livestock assistant in Rajasthan animal husbandry department. All the five were placed under arrest for cheating under IPC sections including 420 (cheating), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) among others.