The Panchmahal district court on Tuesday transferred the proceedings in the case of the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) on May 5 to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ahmedabad after the latest four-day remand of the four arrested accused came to an end.
The district and sessions Judge also transferred the judicial custody of the four accused to the CBI court, following which, they will be shifted from Godhra sub-jail to Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad; the process began on Tuesday evening, sources said.
The CBI is investigating the alleged NEET-UG irregularities on May 5 — a nationwide entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission in UG medical programmes. At Jay Jalaram School in Godhra’s Parvadi village, Gujarat, several students had allegedly paid money to one of the accused, Parshuram Roy, an immigration agency owner, for clearing the medical entrance exam held on May 5, revealed during the probe.
Rakesh Thakor, district government pleader (Panchmahal), told The Indian Express: “The court has transferred the custody of the five accused arrested by the Godhra taluka police as well as the proceedings of the case in the original FIR to Ahmedabad’s CBI court. In its remand application on Friday, the CBI informed the/ court that it had re-registered an offence in the NEET-UG case and, therefore, the proceedings will now continue in the CBI court.”
As the CBI produced the four arrested accused — prime accused Tushar Bhatt (who was the NEET-UG centre superintendent in the district), school principal Purshottam Sharma, education consultant Vibor Anand, and Arif Vohra (a resident of Godhra) — in the Panchmahal district court on Tuesday, the Panchmahal district court ordered the “transfer of judicial custody of the accused to the CBI court” as well as transferred the case proceedings, filed by the Godhra Taluka police station, to the Ahmedabad CBI court.
Last week, the CBI had not sought the remand of the fifth arrested accused, Parshuram Roy — owner of Roy Overseas Services in Vadodara — from where police had recovered cheques amounting to Rs 2.3 crore that some parents of aspiring candidates had allegedly handed over to accused him for the malpractice. All the five accused are in judicial custody.
The CBI court on Saturday also granted investigators the remand of its first fresh arrest in the case — Dixit Patel, chairman of the Jay Jalaram schools. The CBI said that Patel was suspected of “being in touch with the accused and was in the know” of the malpractice by the Godhra taluka police.
Thakor said: “FIR registered at the Godhra Taluka police station is now part of documents submitted in the case, and have been transferred to the CBI court…”