With four out of five NEET ‘solver gang’ arrests from the district, no easy answers in Nalanda

Four of the five arrested are residents of Nalanda district in Bihar, according to the police. Villagers say the incident has left them deeply embarrassed.

Until recently, every time Baldev Kumar drove his SUV into the dusty lanes of Gulariya Bigha, everyone in the nondescript village in Bihar’s Nalanda district would watch him in awe. While the youngsters looked up to him as their role model, the village elders saw in him an obedient son who built a new house for his parents.

But things took a quick turn for Baldev when his name appeared in newspapers and on television channels — Baldev alias Chintu was among five members of a ‘solver gang’ arrested in connection with the alleged paper leak of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) 2024. Baldev, the police said, is a close aide of Sanjeev Mukhiya, who is believed to be the kingpin of an inter-State gang.

“Now, we know where he got all the money from. He has brought such bad name to our village,” said Prem Ranjan Prasad, a resident of Gulariya Bigha.

What made matters worse for Gulariya Bigha and other nearby villages is that four of the five arrested are residents of Nalanda district, according to the police. The other arrested members include Panku Kumar and Paramjit Singh alias Bittu from Chhabilapur in Nalanda, Rajeev Kumar alias Karu from Ekangarsarai in Nalanda, and Mukesh Kumar from Agamkuan in Patna.

Even Mukhiya, who also goes by the name of Lootan, is from Balwapar under Bhutwakhar panchayat of Nagarnausa block in Nalanda district. The 53-year-old was posted as a technical assistant at the Nalanda College of Horticulture in Noorsarai.

According to the police, the ‘solver gang’ is spread across Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat. Mukhiya allegedly runs the gang with Ravi Atri, offering leaked question papers or proxies to take exams.

Baldev, officials said, received the PDF version of the solved question paper on his mobile phone a day before the exam that was conducted on May 5.