About a week before the NEET ‘paper leak’ controversy erupted, the Delhi Police was scouting a hotel in South Delhi’s Mahipalpur — they were probing another kind of ‘NEET-linked’ scam.
On May 2, sources said, Crime Branch officers in the national capital got a from the Additional Commissioner of Police in Surat about a man named Vinod Bhai Bika Bhai Patel.
Patel, a broker in Surat, had been claiming in Gujarat that he could get students admitted to top-tier medical institutions through NEET. And he and his three friends were staying in the Mahipalpur hotel.
With the nation-wide medical entrance exam just a day away, a police team swiftly brought the men in for questioning.
This is what Patel told them. “He had convinced some students in his friends’ and family circle that he would give them access to probable questions just a day before the exam, and they could solve it in Delhi before appearing,” said an officer investigating the case.
Patel, police claimed, identified and approached three aspirants from Gujarat and their families, luring them with false promises of securing MBBS admission. “He wanted Rs 25 lakh, to be paid only after the students managed to get admission. He collected token payments though,” said the officer.
These students came to Delhi and were put up in a run-down hotel in Ghaziabad.
But there was a twist.
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The so-called ‘NEET questions’, police said, were not from the actual paper. They were a mere compilation of multiple ‘practice’ papers provided by other institutes, said police officers.
The alleged con, police said, was to allow these students to practise the questions and appear for the exam. If any of them cleared it, Patel would demand his cut.
Making of a racket
Police said the idea was suggested to Patel by a man named Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, a 50-year-old who runs a pathology lab in Delhi and knew some medical students.
“Jaiswal is originally from Bihar’s Gopalganj and lives in Delhi’s East of Kailash. He got in touch with a man named Dr Akhlaq Alam, who was preparing for the National Medical Council (NMC) exam to get a licence to practice in India,” said DCP (Crime) Sanjeev Yadav.
The con unravelled, layer by layer.
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Police said Alam, who has an MBBS degree from Kyrgyzstan and came back to India in 2025, was allegedly asked by Jaiswal to compile all the question papers.
“Alam also arranged for 15 students from Bihar to come to Delhi on May 2,” said a senior police officer.
But they needed a place to stay. So, Patel and Jaiswal contacted a property dealer named Sant Kumar Singh.
Police said the 60-year-old, who hails from Pune, has properties at his hometown Lucknow — where he currently resides — and Ghaziabad.
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“Sant Kumar Singh arranged for the students to stay in his Ghaziabad flat. Computers were set up there and ‘question papers’ provided to them for practice before the exam,” said a senior police officer.
Rounding up the accused
When police raided the Mahipalpur hotel, they found Patel with incriminating documents.
“The accused had collected cash, original Class X and XII marksheets of students and blank signed cheques. In return, Patel claimed he would facilitate their admission through the NEET (UG) 2026 exam,” said DCP Yadav.
On May 3, police were stationed at Manipal Hospital in Ghaziabad — Patel had asked Jaiswal to come on the instructions of the police. He was also arrested.
The 18 students were rescued as well.
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Police said Jaiswal disclosed the location of Sant Kumar Singh’s Ghaziabad flat, and they raided it the same day. About 15 students, along with 145 question papers and blank cheques, were found there. The remaining three were found in the hotel.
“Some of them were minors, scheduled to appear for NEET. They were counseled and allowed to proceed for their examination. Investigation with respect to them will be conducted in due course. Two more accused present in the flat, Sant Kumar Singh and Dr Alam alias Golden Alam, were apprehended,” DCP Yadav said.
A total of four arrests have been made in the case. Patel’s three friends found in the hotel, police said, have not been taken into custody as of now as their link to the racket has not emerged.
