Guwahati: Bhargav Deka, one of the prime accused in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Mains) scam was arrested Sunday evening from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport here, police said Monday. Bhargav Deka is the owner of the city-based coaching institute ‘Global Edu Light’.
Police had launched a hunt to nab the two prime accused – Deka and a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employee. This was in connection with the examination scam in which a candidate used a proxy and topped in the state.
So far, seven persons have been arrested. Among them are the candidate, his father, two TCS employees and an invigilator. All the five seven have been produced in court. They have been remanded to five days police custody.
The arrested have been identified as candidate Neel Nakshatra Das, his father Dr Jyotirmoy Das. Along with them are their accomplices Hemendra Nath Sarma, Pranjal Kalita and Hirukamal Pathak. One woman was held Saturday, Police Commissioner Munna Prasad Gupta said.
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Meanwhile, police has approached the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam across India. They have sought data to aid the investigation. The NTA had outsourced the infrastructural and human resources support to TCS for conducting the examinations here.
Guwahati Additional Deputy Commissioner (West) Suprotive Lal Baruah is heading the special investigating team (SIT) set up to probe the scam. It came to light following a recorded phone call conversation that went viral. In it the candidate had admitted to his friend that a proxy was used for appearing in the exams September 5.
Subsequently, an FIR was filed October 23 by a person named Mitradev Sharma. The complainant alleged that the candidate who scored 99.8 per cent in the JEE (Mains) did not take the test, but used a proxy to do so on his behalf.
The complainant had also alleged that the parents of the candidate are practicing doctors. They had paid a sum of Rs 15-20 lakh to a private coaching institute here to help their son in the examination.