NEET PG aspirants ‘got calls to improve ranks by paying money’

THE CALLER WAS DEMANDING ₹1 LAKH TO ₹10 LAKH TO IMPROVE THE RANK OF A CANDIDATE AND THE COST VARIED AS PER THE RANK REQUIRED BY THE ASPIRANT

LUDHIANA :Even as the results of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test – Post Graduate (NEETPG)2018weredeclaredon Tuesday, a number of aspirants fortheseatsofdoctorofmedicine (MD)andmasterofsurgery(MS) degrees from the region alleged they have been receiving calls from ‘agents’ offering to improve their ranks upon payment of money in lakhs.

Whatwasshockingforthecandidates that the caller had access to the details such as their enrollment and Aadhaar card numbers, thus hinting towards the possibility of an insider.

The caller had been making callsfromdifferentnumbersand names.

The caller, claiming to be a data operator at National Board of Examination (NBE), New Delhi, claimed to be aware of the rank of the candidates, besides havingaccesstotheentireresults before these were declared.

ThecallerwasdemandingRs1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh to improve the rank of a candidate and the cost varied as per the rank required by the aspirant.

He is also giving his SBI bank account numbers, wherein can- didates can transfer money.

A number of candidates from various districts of Punjab, who appearedfortheentranceexamination on January 7, have claimed to have received such calls.

Onitspart,theNBEhadissued an advisory that applicants should not be misled by such bogus calls. The NBE advisory came after it received several complaints in this regard.

On Tuesday, a LudhianabasedcandidateBhupesh(name changed) received a call from a person, claiming to be a data operatoratNBE,whodemanded Rs5 lakhfor improvinghisrank.

In the audio recording available with the aspirant, the caller can be heard saying that he is a data operator with the NBE and has been uploading the results.

“Hesaidhefoundthatmyrank is above20,000and demanded Rs 5 lakh to improve the rank,” the aspirant said.

“Thecalleraskedmetodeposit the 50% of the amount in his accounttodayandtheremaining after the results that he said will be declared on January 31,” he added.

The candidate said he is not alonetohavereceivedsuchacall. He showed several videos of different aspirants belonging to ShimlaandpartsofMadhyaPradesh, which were viral on the social media.

In a video on Facebook, when anaspirantaskedthechargesfor getting Rank 1, the caller demanded Rs 10 lakh.

HTprocuredthreerecordings fromdifferentaspirantsinwhich namesandmobilenumbersofthe caller were different, but the voicewasthesame.Moreover,in all the three recordings he claimed to be data operator at NBE.

“Not only did he promise to improve ranks, he also was wellversedwithourrollnumbersand Aadhaardetails,muchtoourdismay,” a candidate said.

TheNBEconductedtheNEET entranceexamonJanuary7.The exam was conducted at different centresmanagedbyprivatefirm iON Digital across the country.