Four accused remanded in CBI custody for four days

Vadodara: Four people arrested in the NEET attempt-to-copy case in Godhra were remanded in four-day CBI custody by the sessions court on Saturday.
The agency took custody of the accused from the Godhra jail in the evening.
CBI had sought four-days custody of Purshottam Sharma, principal of Jai Jalaram School; Tushar Bhatt, a teacher in the same school, Arif Vahora, suspended BJP functionary who referred students for to Bhatt, and Vibhor Anand Singh of Bihar who roped in candidates from other states.Vahora had also paid Rs seven lakh in cash to Bhatt which was recovered from the latter’s car on May 5 when the copying bid was foiled by the district collector who got a tip-off. During the hearing on the remand plea on Friday, lawyers appearing for Bhatt and Singh did not oppose the custodial interrogation saying that the duo was willing to cooperate in the investigations. At the other end, the counsels for Vahora and Sharma objected to the plea.
Sessions judge CK Chauhan had reserved the order for Saturday.
Besides other arguments, the CBI counsel and defence lawyers debated whether remand could be granted to an accused after he had spent 15 days in custody. Discussing various judgements in his order, Chauhan observed that the maximum period of remand that can be granted would be of 15 days and could be given from time to time within a period of 60 or 90 days after the arrest, depending on the nature of the offence.
The order granting remand stated that CBI had claimed that during the interrogation, some ‘surprising facts’ had come to the knowledge of the investigating officer. It added how some students chose the two centres of Jay Jalaram School and Gujarati as their language even when they were from states other than Gujarat.
The modus operandi of asking students to leave out questions they did not know answers to blank so that they could be filled in later is also mentioned in detail in the order. The court observed that the malpractice has affected the public interest gravely. The judge also noted that the case required a deep, fair, impartial and transparent investigation. “It is quite an exceptional case which prima facie has a deep-rooted conspiracy,” the order reads.