Subasri death: Jayagopal sent to jail

Former councillor’s brother-in-law nabbed; police pick up four others for putting up banners

29/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,CHENNAI

AIADMK functionary Jayagopal being produced before the Judicial Magistrate, Alandur, in Chennai. B. Velankanni Raj

S. Jayagopal, a former AIADMK councillor and the main accused in the Subasri case, was produced before a magistrate’s court in Alandur on Saturday morning and remanded in judicial custody till October 11.

Later in the day, the city police nabbed Jayagopal’s brother-in-law Meghanathan, another accused in the case.

On September 12, R. Subasri, a techie, was riding her two-wheeler, when a banner put up by Mr. Jayagopal, announcing his son’s wedding, fell on her. In the impact, she fell from the vehicle, and was run over by a water tanker on the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road in Pallikaranai.

Initially, the St. Thomas Traffic Investigation Wing, that probed the accident, arrested tanker driver Manoj, a 25-year-old from Bihar.

But the Judicial Magistrate in Alandur refused to remand him. Meanwhile, Mr. Jayagopal was absconding.

After a fortnight’s search, a special team, headed by an ACP, arrested him in Krishnagiri district on Friday afternoon and brought him to Chennai by road.

Tracking Jayagopal

“His mobile phone was switched off. He was found staying with his wife and daughter in a hotel room, booked in his friend’s name in Denkanikottai, Krishnagiri district. We were able to track him down after he used his debit card to pay for food at an eatery,” said a police officer.

Mr. Jayagopal was booked under Section 336 (Doing any act which endangers human life or personal safety of others) and 304 II (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC, which will attract imprisonment of 10 years or fine or both. He was lodged in the Central Prison in Puzhal.

Tthe Pallikaranai police apprehended four workers who put up banners for Mr. Jayagopal and his brother-in law.

Subramani, 50, Palani, 50, Shankar, 35, and Lakshmikanth, 40, were named in the FIR, and produced before the Judicial Magistrate, Alandur, who refused to remand them.

She also advised the police to decide on releasing them on station bail.

NEET scam: one more student, parent arrested

Two other students under the scanner

29/09/2019, STAFF REPORTER,THENI

The CB-CID on Saturday arrested Praveen S., a student of SRM Medical College, and his father A.K.S. Saravanan in connection with the ongoing investigation in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) impersonation case.

Earlier, three students pursuing medicine in three different colleges in the State were brought here along with their parents amid tight security by CB-CID officials for investigation. The officials said they interrogated Rahul, a student of Sree Balaji Medical College, and his father Davis, Abirami Madhavan of Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute and Praveen. Abirami’s father Madhavan did not turn up for the investigation.

Directorate of Medical Education rules out NEET impersonation in case of two Coimbatore medical college students

TNN | Sep 27, 2019, 02.07 PM IST

CHENNAI: The Directorate of Medical Education on Friday declared that there was no NEET impersonation in the case of two MBBS students studying at PSG Medical College in Coimbatore.
An inquiry committee, set up by the directorate based on a complaint by the college, checked the documents and photographs and spoke to the students and their parents before declaring that there was no impersonation.

“The committee doesn’t have any suspicion now. So we decided not go for next stage of investigation such as comparing finger printings with NEET exam records or lodging police complaint,” said director of medical education Dr R Narayanababu. “However, if the institution has doubts, it can lodge a complaint,” he said.

The two students had been told to return to their classes, Dr Narayanababu said.

Earlier this week, PSG Medical College wrote to the DME that stating that the photograph of two students on the NEET scorecards issued by the National Testing Agency did not match with the ones on the admit cards given by the state selection committee during counselling.

On Thursday, parents of the two students told media that the suspicion was due to the fact that the students had lost weight and the photographs on the NEET applications were old.

Narayanababu said the DME would introduce fingerprints during counselling from next year to avoid confusion.

On Thursday, the CB-CID police arrested K V Udit Surya, an MBBS student at Theni Government Medical College, and his father, Dr K S Venkatesh, on charges of NEET impersonation.

4 Tamil Nadu medicos & 1 Kerala agent held in Neet scam

TNN | Sep 28, 2019, 04.06 AM IST

CHENNAI: Four more MBBS students in Tamil Nadu, one of them a girl, and an agent from Kerala were picked up by the police on Friday as part of the ongoing investigation into the NEET impersonation scam.

The four students are from colleges in Chennai, Chengalpet and Dharmapuri (TOI has the names) while the agent was identified as George Joseph from Thiruvananthapuram. Police said Joseph had collected Rs 20 lakh from Udit Surya and his father Dr K S Venkatesh, who were arrested on Wednesday, to engage an impersonator to write NEET fpr Suriya in Mumbai. Surya got admission at the Theni Government Medical College, but was exposed as his photo in the college admit card did not match the NEET ID photo.

Police said the four students picked up on Friday and Udit Surya had studied at a private engineering college on the outskirts of Chennai in 2017-18. It was closed after failing to get approval from AICTE. All the four students were questioned at the CB-CID office in Chennai and Coimbatore before they were taken to Theni for further investigations.

A police officer, who was part of the investigation, said, one student had paid Rs. 23 lakh to an agent to get an impersonator to take the NEET examination for him. Two students got impersonators to write the NEET for them in New Delhi and Lucknow.

Police are on the lookout for two other agents, Rafi of Bengaluru and Mohammad Shafi of Vaniyambadi near Vellore. Police are also probing is such impersonation happened in previous years too.

Madras high court to scrutinise MBBS admissions under lapsed NRI quota

TNN | Sep 28, 2019, 04.45 AM IST

CHENNAI: All 10 private medical colleges in Tamil Nadu have been ordered by Madras high court to submit the list of students admitted in seats meant for Non-Resident Indians (NRI) quota, along with their marks and the procedure adopted for their admissions.

A comprehensive report on these issues shall be filed in court by October 15, said a division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice P Velmurugan on Friday.

The court made the observation while hearing a plea moved by S Dheeran of Coimbatore seeking a direction the state government to undertake necessary measures for proper counselling and mop-up procedure to fill 207 management quota seats, that have become available owing to non-filling of NRI quota seats. The seats should be filled as per merit and prescribed procedure in the admission for medical colleges, he said.

According to him, this year alone 260 seats were earmarked under NRI quota, out of which only 53 NRIs were admitted. The remaining 207 seats were declared vacant and those seats were reverted to management quota.

When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, the state government submitted that the court should interfere and set guidelines to make admissions to unfilled NRI quota seats under management quota.

Counsel for the petitioner also alleged that such seats transferred to management quota were given to students who had scored low marks in NEET. Their admissions are arbitrary and given to them for far higher rates than prescribed by rules, he said.

Recording the submissions, the bench impleaded all the 10 private medical colleges in the state.

Earlier, the bench wondered as to why admission to MBBS courses in government medical colleges should not be made exclusive only to students from government schools. When it comes to admission to medical courses, students from even private institutions prefer only government medical colleges. This is not the case in the case of admission to other courses, the bench pointed out.

On September 25, the bench took judicial note of impersonation by a first-year MBBS student in NEET and directed the Centre and state government to explain the steps taken by them to prevent such offences during NEET and subsequent admission to medical colleges.

Non-Tamil Nadu centre NEET students under probe

TNN | Sep 29, 2019, 05.44 AM IST

CHENNAI: As the NEET impersonation scam turns bigger with the arrest of one more first-year MBBS student and detention of two more students who are yet to be formally arrested, the CB-CID police have approached the National Testing Agency for details of all Tamil Nadu Class XII students who opted for NEET centres outside the state. So far, two students — K V Udit Surya and Praveen — and their fathers Dr K S Venkatesan and A K S Sarvanan, and George Joseph of Trivandrum, an agent, have been arrested in the case. While Udit Suryia’s impersonator wrote NEET examination in Mumbai, Praveen’s impersonator wrote it in Lucknow.

Cops to verify list or NEET candidates with college IDs

Another suspect, Rahul, had made his impersonator write the exam at a centre in New Delhi. The arrested are facing charges punishable under Section 120(b) (conspiracy), 419 (punishment for cheating) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.

A CB-CID officer, noting that they had written to National Testing Agency (NTA), said, “Once we get the list, officials will sit and compare NEET hall tickets and college ID particulars.” He added: “If needed, we will also collect sets of their fingerprints to compare with their NEET applications.”

Police are also contacting all coaching institutes and collecting marks of all their students and their marks in the last six mock tests. Those students who had been consistently scoring low scores in mock tests, but scored high marks in NEET are being scrutinised, he said.

For instance, one of the arrested student had been scoring 11 to 40 marks in mock tests, but showed more than 365 marks in NEET.

After Udit Surya and his father Venkatesan were remanded in prison, police brought three more students and their fathers to the CB-CID’s office Theni on Saturday for detailed interrogation. After questioning, they arrested Praveen and his father Saravanan, and got them remanded in judicial custody.

In a statement, a CB-CID officer said they were questioning MBBS students Rahul and Abirami, besides their fathers Davis and Madhavan.

An investigation officer said Udit Surya, Rahul and Praveen had studied together in the same college, which was closed abruptly.

NEET impersonation scam: State’s duty is only to coach students for NEET, Tamil Nadu school education minister says

TNN | Sep 28, 2019, 06.02 PM IST

COIMBATORE: The duty of the state school education department is only to coach students to clear NEET exam, said school education minister K A Sengottaiyan on Saturday.
Answering a question on the NEET impersonation scam, the minister said the explanation given by state health minister C Vijaya Baskar on the issue was sufficient. Vijaya Baskar had said that the state was not responsible for the impersonation scam and the National Testing Agency, which conducted the exam should answer.

Five students from medical colleges in the state have been arrested in connection with the NEET impersonation scam.

Sengottaiyan said for the third consecutive year, the school education department was conducting NEET coaching classes for students. He said the classes would be held on weekends.

He was speaking to reporters after participating in a Teacher’s Day event held at a private engineering college here.

“This year, 49.46% of the students who wrote the NEET exam got minimum qualification marks in the exam and two government school students got medical seats. We are training students with a target of making minimum 500 government school students get medical seats,” he said.

The minister said it would be sufficient if students studied their Class XI and XII textbooks to clear NEET, as 90% of the NEET syllabus was in the new textbooks, he said.