'Spent hard-earned Rs 2.5 lakhs for son's training'; nightmare 24 hours for NEET aspirant and mother

PATHANAMTHITTA: Pathanamthitta police arrested Greeshma (20), an employee of Akshaya Center in Neyyattinkara, for allegedly preparing fake hall tickets for the NEET exam. Parassala native Jithu, who appeared for exams with a fake hall ticket and his mother Ammini, were let go by police after questioning. Both of them had to spend 24 hours in custody over the incident.

Greeshma confessed to the crime when the Pathanamthitta police arrived at her home in the morning and took her into custody.

Despite taking the fee of Rs 1850, Greeshma forgot to submit the application. To avoid getting confronted by the student and his parents, she doctored the hall ticket of a student named Abhiram and then made it into Jithu’s name.

Greeshma thought the student wouldn’t appear for the exams if the exam centre was selected far away from his house. When searched on Google, Greeshma found Marthoma Higher Secondary School, last year’s centre in Pathanamthitta. It was added to the hall ticket, but the barcode and certificate could not be edited.

The police took her to the Akshaya Centre owned by resident Sathya Das and seized the computer and hard disk. Greeshma had started working there just four months ago. The student had arrived at Marthoma School to write the exam, but learnt that the centre was Nannuvakkad Govt. Vocational Higher Secondary School. He had to rush. The register numbers of the students at the Pathanamthitta centre were starkly different, which evoked doubts among the faculty.

The officer in charge of the examination suspected that Jithu's hall ticket was fake, but on the instructions of the State Examination Coordinator, the student was allowed to write the exam so as not to miss the opportunity. By checking the barcode, the real student and the centre in Thiruvananthapuram where he was taking the exam were identified.

Despite being from a financially struggling background, the family spent around Rs 2.5 lakh to train Jithu and fulfil his dream of becoming a veterinary doctor. They never imagined falling for such a scam.

Jithu’s mother is a last-grade employee at Karakkonam Medical College. This was the second time that Jithu appeared for the NEET exam. He had known Greeshma and exchanged details for the application over the phone. The payment was also made through Google Pay. Greeshma sent the PDF of the hall ticket to Jithu’s mother’s phone.

The police took the mother and son into custody on Sunday at 5 pm and kept them till Monday evening. Both of them were completely tired by the time they got out of the police station.