Cheated by Akshaya Centre employee: Fake hall ticket for NEET exam; student and mother in custody

PATHANAMTHITTA: Akshaya Centre, which did not handle the application for the NEET exam seriously, deceived a candidate by giving him a fake hall ticket to cover up the lapse. The police took the student, a native of Parasala, Thiruvananthapuram, who had come to write the NEET exam at a school in Pathanamthitta city with a fake hall ticket, and his mother who was with him, into custody.

The police took them from Nannuvakadu Government Vocational Higher Secondary School after the exam was over. They said that they got the hall ticket from the Akshaya Centre in Neyyattinkara. They also revealed that the application was submitted through the same Akshaya Centre. The Neyyattinkara police have also started an investigation. The Akshaya Centre employee will be taken into custody.

The mother and son of a poor family did not have a clear understanding about submitting the application. It was the mother who approached the Akshaya Centre to apply for the exam. The police believe that the employee did not submit the candidate's application. After the distribution of hall tickets began, the hall ticket of another student who had applied through the same Akshaya Centre was edited and a fake hall ticket was sent via WhatsApp. The school in Pathanamthitta was added as the centre.

Real applicant wrote the exam in Thiruvananthapuram

• When the hall ticket of the candidate who arrived at the exam hall was checked by the officials in charge of the exam, it was suspected that it was fake, but he was allowed to write the exam. Out of the 160 candidates who were supposed to appear for the exam at this centre, more than 20 did not appear.
• It was initially thought that there was a technical error in the hall ticket. When it was checked again online, it was found that another student with the same roll number was writing the exam in Thiruvananthapuram.
• On one side of the hall ticket was the address of the student who appeared for the exam and on the other side was the address of the real student. The roll number also belongs to the real student.

Severe punishment if found guilty

• If a candidate is caught writing the exam by altering the hall ticket or impersonating someone, there will be severe punishment. If found guilty, the candidate will be punished for crimes such as impersonation, cheating, and forging documents. The guilty can be punished with a minimum of 10 years in prison and a fine.
• The student and his mother are being questioned late into the night under the leadership of Pathanamthitta DySP in-charge Binu Varghese. The police said that the initial conclusion is that they are innocent.