Rasheed, a suspect in the NEET impersonation scam since 2019, surrendered before the judicial magistrate court here on Thursday.
After Rasheed appeared before the court, magistrate Panneerselvam directed him to be sent to judicial custody. Amid tight security, he was taken to the Madurai Central Prison, officials said. A senior officer said they would take custody of Rasheed soonand look into into the case based on the confessions made by the students and their parents.
The issue came to light after a first-year student, who had joined the Theni Government Medical College, was found to have forged certificates. The police arrested the student and his father, a doctor. As the investigation continued, many students across Tamil Nadu figured in the scam. The case was subsequently transferred to the CB-CID police.
The investigators arrested 14 persons, including some parents. They were kept at the Madurai Central Prison and the Theni district jail. After their detention in the prisons, The court soon granted bail to the accused. A High Court Bench, while hearing the bail applications of the accused, directed the media to refrain from publishing the names of the students.
Based on the confessions of the accused, the police were on the lookout for key suspect Rasheed.
A native of Malappuram in Kerala, he lived in J.P. Nagar, Bengaluru. In the name of the students, he would send in others to write NEET and secure high scores for them, charging huge sums through brokers in Vellore, Dharmapuri, Chennai and Coimbatore.
One such impersonator sent a mail to the Theni Government Medical College dean, stating that a student admitted to the college (the first-year student) had not written the exam. Internal inquiries with the student revealed that the charges were true, following which the authorities lodged a complaint with the Theni policetrue.
