EOU Takes Over Investigations In NEET UG Exam Impersonation Case
Around 200 medical students from 8 different states could have been used by the gang to appear for actual candidates.
By Dev Raj
Published : June 25, 2026 at 8:58 PM IST
Patna: The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Bihar Police took over the case pertaining to impersonation, compromising the biometric verification system, and other malpractices in the NEET UG re-examination conducted on June 21. Preliminary investigations point towards an extensive racket in which around 200 MBBS and nursing students from eight states could have been roped-in to write the exam for actual candidates.
The case assumes additional seriousness because the gang involved in providing dummy candidates managed to breach the National Testing Agency (NTA) security, especially those pertaining to biometric checks of the candidates.
"We have handed over the NEET UG impersonation case to the EOU due to its expertise in such matters. It will carry on further investigations," Lakshsarai Superintendent of Police (SP) Prerna Kumar told ETV Bharat.
The Lakhisarai district police officials said that the EOU has taken over all the documents and case diaries related to the case. Asked about the future course of investigation, EOU deputy inspector general (DIG) Manavjit Singh Dhillon told ETV Bharat: "We will provide information with regard to the case only through official press notes from time to time."
The NEET UG was conducted again on June 21 after the one organised on May 3 was cancelled due to a paper leak.
The Lakhisarai police received intelligence inputs about dummy candidates coming from outside to appear for real applicants. Accordingly, security was increased, and 31 people, including 14 MBBS and nursing students of various institutions in different states and several personnel of the private biometric verification company, were arrested.
Sources in the police shared that the mastermind of the gang that indulged in providing ‘solver’ or ‘Munna Bhais’, as they are popularly called, is Arpit Singh aka Arpit Yadav of Muzaffarpur. He formed the gang along with four friends – Mayank Kumar or Mayank Kashyap, Ashwini Kumar, Ranjit Kumar and Ravi Shankar – while attending a medical coaching institution in Kota, Rajasthan. Being medical aspirants and later MBBS students, they could easily lure other MBBS students.
Arpit, currently a fourth-year student at Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH), Gaya, Ranjit, a fourth-year student at Bhagwan Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences (BMIMS), and Mayank, a third-year MBBS student at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) have already been arrested.
The arrested alleged impersonators include Saurabh Jijha (AIIMS Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, IVth year MBBS), Mantosh Kumar (New Jalpaiguri Medical College, West Bengal, IV year MBBS), Vivek Kumar (Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital or ANMMCH, Gaya, Bihar, IVth year MBBS), Himanshu Kumar (Government Medical College, Satna, Madhya Pradesh, Ist year MBBS), Aman Agrawal (University College of Medical Science Delhi, MBBS Intern), Jitendra Kumar (Nalanda Medical College and Hospital or NMCH, Ist year MBBS) or Chanchal Kumari (Government Ayurvedic College, Odisha, BAMS student), Poonam Kumari (Banaras Hindu University, BSc Nursing student), and Roshan Kumar (NMCH, Patna, B. Pharma IVth year), and others.
"Around 200 such dummy candidates – mostly MBBS students along with a few enrolled in nursing courses – were roped-in the racket from eight states including Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. They were to appear instead of actual candidates," a police officer said.
"The investigation will focus on how many of them managed to appear in place of the real candidates across 331 examination centres in 35 cities of the state, and whether similar tactics were employed in any other state also. It will be an arduous and time-taking task, and will involve probe from various aspects, including tracing the actual candidates, as well as, the biometric company’s staff involved in authenticating the identity of the fake candidates,” the police officer added.
Sources said that given the preliminary findings the mafia involved in the racket could have expected to make anywhere up to Rs 50 crore from the candidates that fell in their trap. The impersonators were to be given a portion of the money realised. The biometric agency staff were paid Rs 20,000 for facilitating the entry of each fake or dummy candidate into the examination centre.
They also said that the arrested people have revealed that they had used the same method during the NEET exam held on May 3, which was later cancelled due to a paper leak. The police officials suspect that the gang had been using these tactics in medical examinations over the past three years.
NEET UG candidates’ biometric verification done by blacklisted company
According to Lakhisarai district police officials, the NTA had awarded the contract for biometric verification of candidates in re-NEET exam to EDCIL, which sub-let it to the ‘Innovative View’ company.
Incidentally, Innovative View is blacklisted in Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. Still, it was handed over the biometric verification work in Bihar. The police officials added that the EOU should also probe whether the top officials of the company were in cahoots with the gang that fielded impersonators in the re-test.
According to the police, the biometrics of the real candidate was taken outside the examination centres. Dummy biometrics were taken of the ‘solver’ who went inside, and their thumb impressions were distorted to hide identity. If the machine rejected the thumb impressions, the company’s personnel used the manual bypass system to all the impersonators to sit in the exam.
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