NEW DELHI, May 26: The Supreme Court today expressed unwillingness to hold the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) afresh following alleged irregularities in the May 3 examination and directed the Haryana Police to expedite its probe to track the beneficiaries.
The Apex Court was informed by Haryana Police that the kingpin of the racket, Roop Singh Dangi, was still at large, though the investigation into the case has made progress.
A vacation bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and U U Lalit said since the probe was in progress, it would not like to direct the holding of the exam again.
The bench did not agree with the suggestion that delay in conducting the re-examination would have wide ramification on the admission process.
It said if the beneficiaries of the irregularities are identified in the probe, then there would be no need for conducting the re-examination.
Hearing the submissions, the bench said “at this juncture, any direction for re-conducting the exam would create large-scale chaos”. It posted the matter for further hearing on June 3.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh said the entire investigation would take months to complete. He had earlier said the court should keep in mind the fact that six lakh students have taken this examination.
Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for some candidates, submitted that the police should conduct thorough probe as electronic devices like bluetooth and mobile apps like WhatsApp were used.
Haryana Police said the DGP was in contact with his counterparts in other states and all possible steps were being taken to track down the beneficiaries of the alleged irregularities.
The investigating officer submitted that the police has identified the outlet from where 72 sim cards of three different telecom service providers were procured by submitting documents of fake identities.
Large-scale irregularities including leakage of answer keys for this year’s AIMPT exam came to the light, with the investigators informing the court that the answer keys of 123 questions were transmitted through 75 mobile phones in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Haryana.
Five days ago too, the court had said reconducting the examination would be the “last resort”.
The court had asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Haryana Police to trace out the actual number of beneficiaries of the alleged irregularities in the test so that “wheat can be separated from chaff”.
It had also directed the law enforcement agencies of other states and mobile service providing companies to assist Haryana police in the investigation.
Haryana Police had said that six persons have been arrested.
One of the officers had told the court that around 1100 hours of May 3 when the tests were being conducted, the police got the information that some doctors were getting the question papers leaked.
The SIM cards, purchased a day before the tests, were de-activated soon after the examination was over, the officer had said, adding that around 700 candidates were supplied answers “electronically in examination halls across the country”.
Earlier, the court had issued notices to the Centre, CBSE, Medical Council of India and Haryana on the pleas seeking re-conduct of the AIPMT on grounds of alleged large -scale irregularities.
One of the petitions claimed that the investigation carried out by the SIT has revealed that the accused gang operated in different states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Citing news reports, it alleged that the examination conducted on May 3 stood vitiated in light of the police probe in several states, suggesting widespread ramification of the alleged leak of answer keys.
It also said the “counselling/admission” on the basis of alleged “vitiated examination” would violate Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution with respect to genuine candidates, claiming that at least 90 leaked answer keys were transmitted to candidates in consideration of Rs 15-20 lakh. (PTI)
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