In a shocking expose from Kerala, a woman was arrested for allegedly being involved in a NEET impersonation fraud after police found she had made a duplicate admit card to sit in another candidate’s place. The case came to light during the extremely competitive National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), when the accused was caught red-handed by a vigilant invigilator who found discrepancies in her documents.
The impersonation bid was thwarted when the invigilator noticed discrepancies in the details on the admit card during the regular verification procedure. Suspecting the mismatched photograph and identification details, the authorities were immediately informed. The woman was apprehended on the spot and subsequently booked on charges of forgery, cheating, and criminal conspiracy.
As per police sources, initial investigations indicated that the woman had used advanced editing software to produce the fake admit card, prompting suspicions of organized rackets allowing such fraudulent activity. Officials are now investigating further if she was operating independently or at the behest of a wider network operating scholar-for-hire rackets, as seen in recent instances reported in Bihar and other states.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET, has assured the public of rigorous verification and monitoring procedures but responded by accepting the requirement for more improvements in response to increasing attempts at impersonation. At the same time, schools and parents have protested against the increasing trend, highlighting the pressure on real candidates and the risk of dilution of merit-based recruitment.
