UP STF busts NEET UG Exam rigging racket in Noida, arrests three

Noida, May 5 (IANS) In a major crackdown, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has busted a gang accused of rigging the NEET UG and other competitive examinations, and arrested three individuals from Gautam Buddha Nagar district's Noida.

The accused have been identified as Vikram Kumar Shah, Dharampal Singh, and Aniket Kumar. The arrests took place in Sector 3, under the Phase-1 police station limits of Gautam Buddha Nagar district.

The accused are now booked under FIR No. 182/2025 at Phase-1 police station in Gautam Buddha Nagar, under sections 318, 319, 336, 337, 338, 340, and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Local police have initiated further legal proceedings.

The STF has seized a significant amount of incriminating evidence from the accused, including six calling mobile phones, four personal phones, two encrypted Aadhaar cards, a candidate data sheet, a PAN card, a credit card, a voter ID, a passport, a cheque book, an Apple MacBook, and a Toyota Fortuner.

Acting on specific intelligence received on May 3, the STF Noida unit under the supervision of Additional SP Raj Kumar Mishra and Deputy SP Navendu Kumar raided the office of the gang located in Sector 3.

The tip-off revealed that members of the gang were contacting relatives of NEET UG candidates, offering guaranteed passing by leaking papers in exchange for large sums of money.

According to the STF, the accused were caught red-handed and immediately taken into custody. During interrogation, 30-year-old Vikram Kumar Shah revealed that he originally hailed from Darbhanga, Bihar and had gone to Vinayaka Mission University in Chennai in 2011 for a Biotechnology degree. There, he met co-accused Aniket Kumar, and the duo began arranging admissions at the university for a 30 per cent commission.

Post graduation, Shah moved to Delhi, where he met Dharampal Singh. Together, they formed a company named "Admission View" and began collecting data on MBBS aspirants. They allegedly contacted students' families, promising guaranteed admissions and demanded Rs 5 lakh per candidate, the STF said.

The gang advised candidates to fill in only those answers in the OMR sheet they were sure of and leave the rest blank. They would then arrange to replace the OMR sheets with ones filled in with correct answers. If the candidate secured admission, the gang kept the money; otherwise, they delayed refunds and fled if legal pressure mounted.

After several complaints surfaced, the gang rebranded in 2023 by forming another firm, "SHREYANVI EDU OPC PVT LTD," registered again in Noida Sector 3, and resumed the same fraudulent operations, targeting students ahead of the NEET UG 2025, the STF mentioned.

Further investigations are underway.

--IANS

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