CBI arrests two in NEET-UG 2025 score manipulation racket, Rs 87.5L demanded per candidate

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) nabbed two private individuals, Salim Patel of Navi Mumbai and Sandeep Shah of Solapur, in a big raid on a NEET UG 2025 admission scam. The accused were said to have been swindling prospective NEET candidates and their families by giving false assurances of manipulating exam scores for huge amounts of money. The complaint was filed on 9 June 2025 after it was complained that the pair had been scamming people by claiming to have friends in bogus officials of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

They purported to promise parents that they could change the NEET UG 2025 marks of poor-performing applicants for a fee — at first charging Rs 90 lakh per applicant, subsequently undercutting to Rs 87.5 lakh. The investigators found that Sandeep Shah had organised meetings with unsuspecting parents at Hotel ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai, where he displayed fabricated claims and presented false assurances of mark tampering. He also assured that the tampered scores would be made available to the candidates six hours prior to the declared official results. The inquiry confirmed that Shah was actively in touch with Salim Patel, who owns an admission consultancy in Navi Mumbai. Patel was further connected to another member who owned a similar organisation in Pune. A mobile phone forensic examination revealed incriminating conversations, names, roll numbers, admit cards, and OMR sheets of various NEET aspirants. Financial operations traced via Hawala networks further validated the allegations. Sandeep Shah was taken into custody in Mumbai on 9 June 2025, and Salim Patel was caught on June 10 from Sangli.