NEET-UG Cheating Ring Busted In Gujarat’s Godhra; Candidates Paid Lakhs For This Centre

NEET-UG Cheating Fraud: After allegations from NEET candidates about tampering with the 2024 medical entrance exam results, another controversy emerged in the NEET-UG results row: a cheating scandal in Godhra, Gujarat. Parashuram Roy allegedly ran an illegal operation through his company. According to Zee News TV, students paid him Rs 10 lakh to secure their desired examination centres, and hefty sums were charged to fill out their answer sheets. 

At least 16 students allegedly paid Rs 10 lakh to Parshuram Roy to get their answer sheets filled by another. Roy instructed candidates to answer only questions they were confident about and leave the rest blank. Another individual involved, Tushar Bhatt, a teacher at Jai Jalaram School in Godhra, used to fill in those answers later. 

The initial probe indicates transactions totaling more than Rs 12 crore involving students and their parents. 

The District Education Officer filed a complaint against three individuals at Godhra Taluka Police Station. The complaint named Tushar Bhatt, Parshuram Roy, who owns Roy Overseas in Vadodara, and Arif Vora from Godhra. 

Parashuram sent the details of these 16 students to Tushar through Arif. 

In a separate development, the Centre informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that it has decided to invalidate the scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were given grace marks. This decision comes in response to allegations of unfair means during the examination process. 

The Centre also said that an option will be given to only these students to take a re-test on June 23. For candidates opting out of the re-examination, results will be recalculated based on their original scores without grace marks. 

The results of the re-test will be declared prior to June 30 so that counselling, which is set to begin on July 6, stays unaffected.