VASCO: The Verna police on Sunday arrested two persons, both from Bihar, for impersonation during the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held at Litera Primary Zee School, behind BITS Pilani Campus, Sancoale.
The incident came to light when NEET candidate (genuine) Ruturaj Kavlekar, native of Kolhapur, Maharashtra, appeared at Litera Primary Zee School centre to answer the NEET exams but was shocked to find someone else on his seat. What was more surprising, the person also had a NEET exam hall ticket issued in the name of Kavlekar.
He (Kavlekar) complained to the centre in-charge Sandhya Venkatesh, Principal of Litera Primary Zee School, who then verified the documents and found that Randhir Singh was a fake candidate and had occupied Kavlekar’s seat.
Subsequently, while checking the identity of other candidates, the centre officials “found” one Diwakar Kumar, another fake candidate, who was appearing in place of Sandesh Gajanan Mhatre. Gajanan had not come for the test.
Later, Venkatesh lodged a police complaint and both the persons from Bihar were arrested.
“We have arrested two Bihar natives, one Randhir Singh, 22, for impersonating as Ruturaj Kavlekar from Kolhapur and Diwakar Kumar, 21, who was appearing for the tests as “Sandesh Gajanan Mhatre”. They were booked under Sections 419, 420,” police told.
Sources at Verna police said they suspect the involvement of a bigger racket behind this. Police during their prima facie probe revealed that before NEET exams, Kavlekar was approached by a person who offered to clear NEET exams on his (Kavlekar’s) behalf in return for cash. However, Kavlekar refused the proposal and decided to appear on his own. Meanwhile, due to some misunderstanding within the racketeers, Randhir Singh appeared with a fake hall ticket issued in name of Kavlekar and was caught.
Nearly 2000 appear for NEET: Nearly 2,000 Goa-based students on Sunday answered the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET) from various centres across the state.
NEET is a three-hour paper comprising questions from physics, chemistry and biology. The paper is of objective nature and there will be negative markings too.
The Central Board of Secondary Education schools of Kendriya Vidyalayas in Goa served as centres for NEET. Students from neighbouring areas like Karwar and Sindhudurg also appeared for the examination from Goa centres.
NEET is being held this year not only for admissions to medical and dental programmes, but also for homeopathy and ayurveda courses.
The last-minute verdict by the Supreme Court making NEET as the only medical Common Entrance Test before the actual examination, last year, had created much chaos as the decision had hit the aspirants of medical profession hard. In Goa, earlier the admissions were based on the Goa Common Entrance Test (GCET).
The Directorate of Technical Education will conduct GCET on May 9 and 10 for admissions to professional degree courses in engineering, pharmacy, ayurveda, homeopathy, nursing and allied health sciences programmes.
The test will cover physics, chemistry, maths and biology based on Class XII syllabus of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Each paper will consist of 75 objective questions carrying one mark each with no negative marking. The examination for each subject will be of two-hour duration, as usual.
