Guwahati, Oct 29: The topper of the Joint Entrance Exam (Mains) in Assam, his father and three others have been arrested for allegedly using a proxy to write the country’s premier engineering entrance test, the Guwahati Police said. The accused had scored 99.8 percent in the exam, which is the basis for admission in India’s top engineering colleges, including the prestigious IITs.
The candidate, Neel Nakshatra Das, his father, Dr Jyotirmoy Das, and three employees of a testing centre – Hamendra Nath Sarma, Pranjal Kalita and Hirulal Pathak – have been arrested, the Guwahati police said.
They will be produced in a local court on Thursday.
“An FIR (first information report) has been registered with the Azara Police in Assam against the topper of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains in Assam, allegedly for using a proxy to appear in the examination on his behalf. We investigated the case and have unearthed that a proxy was used by the candidate through the help of another agency that acted as a middleman,” Guwahati Police Commissioner MP Gupta told NDTV.
“The staff of the testing centre in Guwahati is also involved. We are searching for more people (who are involved in the crime). This might not be a one-of case but may be part of a larger scam …We are looking at all aspects,” he added.
A police complaint in this regard was filed by a man named Mitradev Sharma last week, after a phone call recording and WhatsApp chat – in which the accused allegedly talks about having used unfair means to top the exam – surfaced on social media.
The invigilator had allegedly helped the JEE aspirant in cheating, police said. The accused went inside the testing centre on the day of the exam just to fill his name and roll number on the answer sheet, police said, adding the test was written by a proxy outside.
The examination centre has been sealed and the management has been summoned, police said.
The Assam Police have informed the National Testing Agency (NTA) about the incident.
